The association between work and integration in the Norwegian welfare context, and its implications for immigrants and social work practice: An integrative review

Figures & data

Figure 1. PRISMA flow diagram, outlining the systematic integrative review.

Table 1. Keywords in computer search.

Keywords in English	Keywords in Norwegian
integration AND (migrant OR immigrant* OR ‘asylum seekers’ OR refugee*) AND (job* OR work* OR employ* OR labour* OR labour*) AND (Norway or Norwegian)	integrering OG (migrant* ELLER flyktning* ELLER innvandrer*) OG (arbeid* ELLER sysselsett* ELLER jobb*).

Table 2. Overview of the articles included in the integrative review.

	(1) Barth, Bratsberg, and Raaum (2012)	(2) Fangen and Paasche (2013)	(3) Annfelt and Gullikstad (2013)	(4) Hermansen (2013)	(5) Birkelund et al. (2014a)	(6) Birkelund et al. (2014b)	(7) Bratsberg, Raaum, and Røed (2014)
Scope andpurpose	Examination of immigrant wage-growth and job-mobility.	Exploration of how exclusion was subjectively perceived and experienced among young adults of ethnic minority background.	Analysis of how the aim of gender mainstreaming was operationalized in terms of inclusion of immigrant women.	Examination of descendants’ and natives’ access to employment and advantaged occupational positions	Exploration of whether descendants were employed equally to natives with comparable education.	Exploration of prevalence of discrimination in four Norwegian cities.	Examination of lifecycle patterns of employment, earnings and social insurance claims of immigrants.
Method	Quantitative	Qualitative	Qualitative	Quantitative	Quantitative	Quantitative	Quantitative
Sample	Male immigrant workers (20–65) in 90,189 establishments. (Rich developed countries excluded).	25 young adult immigrants and descendants (18–26).	Public reports, white papers, action plans.	107,362 Norwegian-born and foreign-born (arriving before 7 years old) descendants. Native comparisons.	Pakistani and Indian descendants (47,003) (1975–1990), born in Norway or arrived before starting school. Native comparisons.	1174 fictitious Pakistani descendants	70,094 immigrants (refugees, new EU, Western-Europe, Pakistan/Turkey), men and women (17–36) at time of arrival.
						and fictious native Norwegians.
Data-collection method	Statistics	Life-story interviews.	Discourse analysis.	Statistics	Statistics.	Randomized field-experiments.	Statistics.
Findings	Immigrants experienced more frequent intermissions in employment, which impaired wage growth and limited favourable options outside their own workplace.	Few incidents of discrimination by employers, more frequent from customers.	Gender mainstreaming as a strategy failed in establishing a gender and equality understanding including non-culturalization multi-dimensionality.	Occupational stratification appeared to work similarly among employed descendants, ethnic minorities, and the native majority in Norway.	Documented ethnic penalties. Education raised probability of rapid employment.	Systematic discrimination of applicants with Pakistani names.	The welfare system created structural barriers for long-term employment. Immigrants had lower employment and earnings, and higher disability claims.
	(8) Midtbøen (2014)	(9) Drange and Telle (2015)	(10) Kavli (2015)	(11) Bratsberg, Raaum, and Røed (2016)	(12) Hermansen (2016)	(13) Kavli and Nikolaisen (2015)	(14) Midtbøen (2016)
Scope and purpose	Exploration of decision-making processes leading to differences in call-back rates.	Exploration of whether free childcare bridged the enrolment gap and affected parental employment and education	Studied immigrants’ and descendants’ attitudes to mothers’ employment.	Exploration of specific arrival cohorts’ outcome over time	Studied inter-generational transmission of educational attainment and adult earnings from immigrant-parents to descendant	Explored immigrant women’s participation in the labour market.	Explored to what extent discrimination by employers caused labour market disadvantages experienced by descendant
Method	Qualitative	Quantitative	Quantitative	Quantitative	Quantitative	Quantitative	Quantitative
Sample	42 out of 163 employers participating in field experiments.	32,657 children (2004–2007) with immigrant parents, in childcare. Residing in specific residential areas in Oslo.	1812 immigrants (Pakistan, Vietnam, Iraq, Iran), Norwegians, descendants (Pakistani), (20–55).	97,676 non-European refugees and family-reunified, men and women, (18–47). Settled 1992–2015.	484,872 children (1973–1982) native and descendants (born in Norway or immigrated before starting school), living in Norway in 2012.	544,026 Iranian, Iraqi, Pakistani, Somalian, Vietnamese immigrant women (25–54), native comparisons.	900 fictitious Pakistani descendants
							and fictious native Norwegians.
Data-collection method	In depth interviews.	Statistics	Survey and statistics.	Statistics	Statistics.	Statistics.	Field-experiments.
Findings	Descendants had reduced opportunities.	Free childcare did not result in higher employment rates or education for parents.	Little difference between men and women’s attitudes. Country of origin and mothers’ education mattered. Younger or more educated were more positive.	Non-European refugees had trouble reaching high levels of employment, accompanied by high levels of social security dependency.	Substantial intergenerational convergence in socio-economic life chances between descendants and native Norwegians.	Immigrant women had less stable attachment to the labour market. More prone to occupy temporary positions	Discrimination was a relevant explanation for observed ethnic inequalities.
	Employers used foreign names as proxies for immigrant stereotypes and were unable to distinguish between generations.
	(15) Røysum (2016)	(16) Birkelund, Heggebø, and Rogstad (2017)		(17) Bratsberg, Raaum, and Røed (2017)		(18) Eide et al. (2017)	(19) Godøy (2017)
Scope and purpose	Examination of whether the discourse on gender equality covers up an idea of immigrant women lacking work ethic	Exploration of how employers evaluated job applications from unemployed ethnic minorities and the majority population.		Examination of life-cycle patterns of labour market integration across immigrant groups.		Exploration of	Explored how local conditions influenced later outcomes for resettlement refugees.
						measures aiming to recruit refugees and immigrants to the care sector.
Method	Qualitative	Quantitative		Quantitative		Qualitative	Quantitative
Sample	White paper 6 (2012–2013)	1188 fictious Pakistani descendants and fictious native Norwegians.		EU labour-immigrants, refugees and family immigrants from low-income countries. Entered 1990–2014		7 measures aimed at recruiting immigrants to the care sector.	7394 resettlement refugees (18–55) entering Norway 1993–2007.
Data-collection method	Textual analysis	Randomized field-experiments.		Statistics.		Interviews, case visits.	Statistics
Findings	The discourse on gender equality appeared to disguise a discourse presuming immigrant women lack work ethic.	Employers reacted to ethnicity and unemployment in an additive manner, not in a multiplicative manner		Labour-market integration of immigrants reversed after a few years. Accompanied by rising social insurance claims.		Considerable variation, impossible to standardize. Challenge to combine work orientation and rapid transfer into the labour market.	Local labour-market conditions were an important indicator of refugees’ labour-market outcome.
	(22) Badwi, Ablo, and Overå (2018)	(23) Bratsberg, Raaum, and Røed (2018)		(24) Friberg and Midtbøen (2018)		(25) Larsen, Rogne, and Birkelund 2018	(26) Birkelund et al. (2019)
Scope and purpose	Examination of how Ghanaian immigrants’ social identities affected their employment processes and shaped their social networks.	Exploration of job loss and its consequences for immigrants.		Examined ethnic employment hierarchies in two immigrant-concentrated low-wage labour markets in Norway.		Analysis of relative overqualification among immigrants and descendants in Norway	Explored whether terrorist attacks changed employers’ discriminatory behaviour.
Method	Qualitative	Quantitative		Qualitative		Quantitative	Quantitative
Sampling strategy	Snowball sampling			Purposeful sampling
Sample	40 Ghanaian immigrants in Bergen.	Employees (25–55) in private-sector firms experiencing bankruptcy and major downsizing (1994–2010), native comparisons.		40 managers, administrative personnel, employees, trade union representatives.		1,782,867 immigrants and descendants (25–64). Native reference group.	1456 fictitious Pakistani descendants
							and fictitious native Norwegians.
Data-collection method	Interviews, observations, informal conversations.	Statistics		Interviews, informal conversations.		Statistics	Randomized field-experiments.
Findings	Social networks and relations played a crucial role in the employment process and outcomes.	Lacking stability, more frequent transitions out of employment explained why immigrants failed to integrate fully in the labour market.		Group characteristics tended to override individual traits when jobs were allocated in low-wage labour markets.		Immigrants had lower employment rates and were more likely to be overqualified. Descendants were not.	No evidence that level of discrimination was lower in 2011 than in 2010.

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