People aged 16-39 years with immigrant background in employment and education 2018

This report describes the disparities in the shares of persons aged 16-39 who are in employment or education (i.e. the share of the population that is active). The following three sub-populations are compared:

1. Those who arrived in Norway as immigrants from Eastern Europe outside the EU, Asia, Africa and South and Central America.
2. Those born in Norway to immigrant parents with a background from the aforementioned world regions.
3. People with a non-immigrant background (i.e. the majority population).

The report is based on register statistics for the 4th quarter of 2018.

The immigrant group in this report do not represent the Norwegian-born´s immigrant parents, but consists of immigrants at the same age as the Norwegian-born to immigrant parents. Hence, we intend to describe the significance of being born in Norway by immigrant parents as opposed to immigrate oneself.

Norwegian-born to immigrant parents are much closer to the majority population than the immigrant group as the share of actives is concerned. Immigrants who arrived in Norway before school age are, however, roughly on a par with the Norwegian-born to immigrant parents. These differences have been stable for several years.

It is participation in education that particularly raises the activity level among Norwegian-born to immigrant parents, since 60 per cent are aged 16-24 years. When looking at the 24+ sub-population, where employment is the dominant activity, the gap in relation to the majority is somewhat larger.

Among the 20+ sub-population, male immigrants have a considerably higher level of activity than the women and hence are closer to the majority.

The shares of actives are largest among the Norwegian born with immigrant parents from Sri Lanka and Vietnam. These groups surpass the level of the majority by a few percentage points, while the groups with parents from Bosnia-Hercegovina and India are close to the majority.

Completion of an upper secondary education has, however, a stronger impact on the share in activity than immigrant background within the population aged 25-39 years. Norwegian-born to immigrant parents and immigrants who have completed an upper secondary or a higher education have considerably higher shares in activity than the majority population with a compulsory education only.

The fact that the two groups with an immigrant background have larger shares with a compulsory education only than the majority population among the 19+ sub-population, is an important contributing factor to the disparities in activity level between the three population groups. This phenomenon has a particular impact on the immigrant group.

The average wages within the majority aged 20-39 years was 40 820 NOK. Among immigrants and Norwegian-born to immigrant parents at the same age the average wages were 35 640 NOK and 37 900 NOK respectively. The large share of young people among the latter group do, however, reduce the average wages. When looking at the 30+ sub population, there is almost no difference in relation to the majority, while the immigrant group still earns somewhat less.