Publication

Reports 2019/24

Workplace segregation among employed with immigrant background in Norway

This publication is in Norwegian only.

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The fact that persons with an immigrant background participate in working life is considered as an important factor in ensuring that they are as integrated as possible in the society. Nevertheless, a skewed composition of employed with an immigrant background in workplaces can moderate the effects on integration despite being in work. The report thus questions the degree of homogeneity and heterogeneity in the composition of labor with immigrant backgrounds in the workplaces, and how this composition has developed over time.

The dissimilarity index (D index), and in part the Gini coefficient, is used to investigate segregation in the workplaces among employed with an immigrant background in the period 2005-2015. The D index measures the uniformity of the distribution of employed immigrants and descendants of immigrants versus the other employment provided various divisions of workplaces. Initially, all workplaces in the country, defined as all establishments with known organizational numbers in the statistical basis are included, but further limited to workplaces that have employed both with and without an immigrant background. Furthermore, the analyses are concentrated on establishments that have existed coherently during the period covered by the analyses.

The results show a moderate decline in the workplace segregation when the analyses are based on the total number of establishments and all consistently existing establishments during the period. This is due to the facts that, despite an increase in the number of establishments that have only employed with an immigrant background, the decline in the number of establishments that have only employed without an immigrant background is even higher, so that the number of establishments that have employed both with and without an immigrant background has increased the most. When the analyses are concentrated on only workplaces where there are continually employed both with and without an immigrant background, the workplace segregation, on the other hand, has increased during the investigation period.

We find a declining segregation by the size of the establishments when all workplaces are included in the analysis, but an increasing tendency of segregation with the size of the establishments for those workplaces that have employed both with and without an immigrant background. For the latter, the results show an increased segregation for all sizes of establishments throughout the period.

Measured by industry, one finds the highest workplace segregation in the primary industries, business services, accommodation and food service activities, construction and transport and storage, while health and social services, public administration and finance and insurance show lower levels of segregation. Business services and construction activities stand out with the highest increase in segregation during the investigation period, with increasing segregation towards employed with an immigrant background. On the other hand, health and social services show a decline in segregation, with a tendency of a declining segregation towards employed with an immigrant background.

The segregation in the workplaces is higher among employed born in Norway to immigrant parents than among immigrants, but the segregation falls more in the first group during the investigation period. There are immigrants with a background from EU countries in Eastern Europe, which show the highest segregation and the highest increase of segregation in the workplaces, while those with a background from countries in Eastern Europe that are not EU members, Asia, Africa, Latin America and Oceania outside of Australia and New Zealand have a moderately declining segregation, and especially among those from early immigrant countries.

Male employed immigrants show higher workplace segregation than employed immigrant women, and the gender difference increases further when the segregation is measured separately in relation to employed men and women without an immigrant background.

The segregation in the workplaces is higher among younger immigrants than in the middle and older age groups when the segregation is generally measured in relation to all employed without an immigrant background. The differences between the age groups are somewhat moderated when the segregation is measured relatively to similar age groups among employed without an immigrant background.

The workplace segregation has a falling tendency among employed immigrants with an increasing level of education, which is most evident when the segregation is measured relatively to corresponding educational groups among employed without an immigrant background. The segregation in the workplaces is also higher for immigrants with short duration of residence than for those with a longer duration of residence in the host country.

When the segregation in the workplaces is measured for all establishments separately by an aggregated division of counties, there are regions such as Oslo, Akershus and Østfold and Rogaland that show the lowest segregation, while Trøndelag, Northern Norway and Hedmark and Oppland show somewhat higher segregation. When the contributions to segregation are measured simultaneously for all regions, there is a tendency for somewhat declining segregation throughout the period in Oslo, but increasing segregation in the workplaces in Western Norway, in Trøndelag and in Northern Norway.

Measured separately by the level of centrality and for all establishments, the workplace segregation increases with declining levels of centrality, but over time it is the least central municipalities that reduce their workplace segregation the most. Thus, there is a certain tendency for convergence in segregation between the levels of centrality throughout the investigation period.

When it comes to establishments that have employed both with and without an immigrant background, the differences in segregation in the workplaces are more evenly distributed between the levels of centrality, with a tendency that employed in the central and least central municipalities show somewhat higher segregation.

When the contributions to segregation from the establishments at all levels of centrality are examined simultaneously, there is a tendency for a slightly declining segregation in the central municipalities, while the other levels of centrality draw moderately in the opposite direction, and then with a tendency to increase segregation towards employed with an immigrant background.

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