Young people positive towards immigrants

Growth in the immigrant population

At the beginning of 2005, the immigrant population was 365 000. 301 000 were first-generation immigrants, and 64 000 were born in Norway of two foreign-born parents. During 2004, the immigrant population increased by 17 000(1), distributed between 3 800 people born in Norway of two foreign-born parents and 13 200 first-generation immigrants.

Three out of four have non-western background

25 years ago non-western immigrants accounted for 31 per cent, or 30 000, of the immigrant population. In 2005, non-western immigrants totalled 265 000, and they now account for 72 per cent of the immigrant population. At the beginning of 2005, non-western immigrants accounted for 5.7 per cent of the total population. People of Pakistani origin make up the largest immigrant group in Norway. Among first-generation immigrants, Swedes and Danes made up the largest and second to largest groups, followed by immigrants from Iraq and Pakistan. People with Asian parents made up the largest group of descendants (38 000), including people with parents from Pakistan (11 800), Vietnam (5 800) and Turkey (4 500). Only 13 800 people were born in Norway to parents of European origin. Descendants of people born in Sweden and Denmark made up 1 400 and 1 000 people respectively.

One in three have lived in Norway for less than five years

At the beginning of 2005, 32 per cent of first-generation immigrants had lived in Norway for less than five years, while 16 per cent had lived in Norway for 25 years or more. Almost half of Danish immigrants had lived in Norway for more than 25 years. On the other hand, 84 per cent of Afghan immigrants had lived in Norway for less then five years. Furthermore, a high proportion of immigrants from Iraq and Somalia have lived in Norway for less than five years - 57 and 55 per cent respectively.

More than 100 000 refugees

At the beginning of January 2005, Norway's refugee population was more than 107 000, or 2.3 per cent of the Norwegian population. Refugees from Iraq, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Somalia, Iran and Vietnam made up the largest groups. 76 per cent of the refugee population were registered as principal applicants while 24 per cent came to Norway as dependants. 54 per cent of the principal applicants were registered as asylum seekers and 24 per cent as transfer refugees. http://www.ssb.no/flyktninger_en/

More immigrants became naturalized citizens

8 200 people became naturalized citizens in 2004 - 300 more than in the previous year. As in 2003, the majority of Norwegian citizenships were granted to Bosnians (800). Almost 7 300, or 90 per cent, of those who were granted Norwegian citizenship in 2004 were former citizens of a non-western country. 1 900 of these came from Eastern Europe. About 900 of those who became naturalized citizens were former citizens of a western country. 163 400 people have been granted Norwegian citizenship since 1977. 137 700, or 85 per cent, were former citizens of a non-western country.

Immigrant girls complete upper secondary education faster than the boys

In 2004, 8 per cent of pupils in upper secondary education had immigrant background. Country background strongly affects the throughput and dropout rates for these pupils. If we look at the pupils who entered upper secondary education in 1999, the majority of pupils with European, Asian and North American background had completed their upper secondary education after five years, many within the normal time frame. More than half of the pupils with African background had dropped out.

Immigrant girls had a higher throughput rate than immigrant boys. More than 50 per cent of the girls completed upper secondary education on time, compared with 39 per cent of the boys. More than half of the boys had not completed upper secondary education after five years. http://www.ssb.no/vgogjen_en/

Around 30 per cent of the population aged 19-24 years were registered in tertiary education last year. The proportion of first-generation immigrants in the same age group was below 20 per cent. People born in Norway of two foreign-born parents were better represented in tertiary education than other people, as a proportion of age-cohort the figure was 33.4 per cent. However, there is a marked difference between men and women, as the proportion of enrolled students with parents born outside Norway in 2004 was 29.2 per cent for men and 37.9 per cent for women. The corresponding figures for the total population of 19-24 year-olds were 25.9 and 37.8 per cent. http://www.ssb.no/utelstud_en/

Immigrant unemployment continued to fall

The registered unemployment rate among immigrants fell by 0.8 percentage points to 9.0 per cent in the period May 2004 to May 2005. Immigrants from Eastern Europe had the strongest fall in unemployment with 1.3 percentage points. In the population as a whole, unemployment fell from 3.7 to 3.3 per cent.

As the fall in the total unemployment rate is relatively stronger than the fall in unemployment among immigrants, there are no obvious signs that the gap between the two will narrow.The unemployment level among immigrants still remains almost three times higher than for the population as a whole, and for immigrants from Africa the level is five times higher.

The unemployment rate among immigrants from the new EU countries in Eastern Europe was 4.7 per cent at the end of May. This is almost on level with the unemployment rate among immigrants from North America and Oceania, which was 4.5 per cent in the second quarter. In comparison, the unemployment rate among immigrants from other countries in Eastern Europe was 10.6 per cent.

As mentioned above, immigrants from Africa had the highest unemployment rate in May, at 17.5 per cent compared with 12.3 per cent for immigrants from Asia. The unemployment rate among immigrants from South and Central America was 10.1 per cent, whereas unemployment among immigrants from Eastern Europe as a whole was 8.9 per cent. As in previous surveys, immigrants from the Nordic countries had the lowest rate at 3.6 per cent, closely followed by other Western European immigrants at 3.9 per cent.

The high unemployment rate among African immigrants must be seen in connection with the relatively large proportion of newly arrived immigrants in this group, especially refugees from Somalia.

The number of immigrants on ordinary labour market schemes (job programmes) fell from 5 924 in May 2004 to 4 971 in May 2005. They accounted for 29 per cent of all participants on such schemes in the second quarter and included mainly non-western immigrants.

As a percentage of the immigrant population, participation on labour market schemes fell from 2.3 per cent to 1.8 per cent. In the population as a whole the participant rate fell slightly from 0.6 per cent to 0.5 per cent. http://www.ssb.no/innvarbl_en/

Immigrant employment unchanged

The total employment rate among first-generation immigrants remained stable at 56.6 per cent from the fourth quarter of 2003 to the fourth quarter of 2004. In the population as a whole the employment rate only decreased by 0.1 percentage points, from 69.4 to 69.3 per cent. The employment rate for male immigrants was 61.1 per cent, compared with 52.2 per cent for female immigrants. In the population as a whole these rates were 72.5 and 66.0 per cent respectively. Immigrants from the new EU countries were more likely to be employed than immigrants from the rest of Eastern Europe - 64.5 against 55.6 per cent. The employment rate for immigrants from the new EU countries is almost on level with that of immigrants from Western Europe (except the Nordic countries) with 67.5 per cent. Immigrants from the Nordic countries had the highest employment rate with 71.5 per cent, while African immigrants had the lowest with 41.2 per cent. Among non-western immigrants, immigrants from South and Central America had the highest employment rate with 58.4 per cent, compared with 48.6 per cent for immigrants from Asia.

Employment increases with residence

The employment rate among immigrants increases significantly after four years of residence. For the immigrant population as a whole the rate increases from 46.3 per cent for those with less than four years of residence, to 58.2 per cent for immigrants with more than four years of residence. If we look at immigrants with more than seven years of residence the employment rate continues to rise, but only by 2 percentage points. Among non-western immigrants the employment rate continues to rise after seven years of residence, while the employment rate for western immigrants decreases. This development may be attributable to the age composition and the fact that there is a higher proportion of elderly people among western immigrants than other groups.

Non-western immigrants over-represented in hotel and restaurant industry

Non-western immigrants are over-represented in the hotel and restaurant industry. 3.3 per cent of all employed persons work in this industry, compared with 12.4 per cent of non-western immigrants. In the industrial cleaning industry the differences are even greater, as this industry employs 0.8 per cent of the population as a whole and 6.2 per cent of non-western immigrants.

Many non-western immigrants in elementary occupations

The register-based employment statistics now include distribution by occupation. However, employed persons in health enterprises and municipal and county administration are not yet included in the tables for distribution by occupation. The distribution based on nine main groups of occupation reveal that non-western employees were highly represented in elementary occupations, as 25 per cent of non-western employees worked in this group compared with 6.7 per cent in the working population as a whole (with information of occupation). Western employees are more likely to work in professional occupations, as 18.8 per cent of this group had such occupations compared with 10.7 per cent in the working population as a whole and 6.5 per cent of non-western workers.

Higher employment among immigrant descendants

Statistics Norway produces employment figures for Norwegians born of foreign-born parents. The employment rate for this group was 56.9 per cent, or 0.3 percentage points above the parents' generation. This group consisted of 7 800 people and more than half were aged 16-25 years. In other words, this is a young group in the population and many of them are likely to be students/pupils and thus not included in the labour force. If, however, we look at the group of employed aged 25-39 years (2 600 persons), the employment rate is 71 per cent, which is 10 percentage points higher than the level in the corresponding age group among first-generation immigrants. It should be mentioned that people born in Norway of African women had an employment rate of 51 per cent, which is 10 percentage points higher than their parents' generation. Furthermore, people born of Eastern European mothers (outside the EU) had a considerably higher rate of employment, with 68 per cent compared with 56 per cent for their parents' generation. http://www.ssb.no/innvregsys_en/

One in five non-western immigrants have low income

In general, western immigrant families have a higher income than non-western immigrant families. Half of the western couples with children have an after-tax income of NOK 500 000 or more, while this is the case for 15 per cent (immigrants from Africa) and 25 per cent (immigrants from South and Central America) of non-western immigrants. Although single parents usually have a far lower after-tax income than others, the after-tax income of western single parents is still higher than that of non-western single parents.

From 2001 to 2003, there was an increase in the proportion of immigrants in the low-income group. One out of five non-western immigrants were in the low-income group in 2001 (based on the definition of low income used by the OECD). This was the case for one out of four non-western immigrants in 2003. 5 per cent of the total population belonged to the low-income group. Hence, a non-western immigrant is five times more likely to belong to the low-income group compared with the population as a whole.

A large proportion of non-western immigrants, 36 per cent, belong to households with no economically active persons. This is the case for 41 per cent of refugees. Lack of economically active persons in the household is an important reason for low income. For the general population aged 25-65 years, one out of three people with low income belonged to a household without any economically active persons. Only one out of ten people with income above low income are in households with no economically active persons. Three out of four non-western immigrants with low income and four out of five refugees are in households with no economically active persons. It is less common for low-income immigrants to have a large debt compared with the general population aged 25-65 years. Whereas only one out of ten non-western immigrants with low income have a large debt, this is the case for three out of ten in the general population (25-65 years) with a low income. Social security benefits, such as social assistance and dwelling support are far more common among non-western immigrants than in the population as a whole. Social assistance is five times as common among non-western immigrants than in the population as a whole aged 25-65 years. Dwelling support is seven times as common.

Immigrants become less dependent on financial support the longer they live in Norway. Social assistance as a proportion of total income decreases with the duration of residence. Social assistance is more important than income from work for single parents who are refugees and have lived in Norway for four years or less. Income from work is more important than social assistance for immigrants with six years of residence or more. For non-western couples with children income from work is more important than social assistance from the beginning. For single parents who are refugees, social assistance is more important than income from work only in the first year of residence. These figure are based on the family composition as of 31 December 2003.

More people with immigrant background entitled to vote

About 123 700 Norwegian citizens with immigrant background had the right to vote in this year's election, an increase of 24 000 since the 2001 Storting election. About half of this increase took place in Oslo and Akershus. In Oslo, Norwegian citizens with immigrant background constitute about 12 per cent of the total number of electors. This compares with an average for the country as a whole of 3.6 per cent. In the last four-year period, there has been a decrease in the number of electors among western immigrants. The largest groups with immigrant background who are entitled to vote come from Pakistan (12 700), Vietnam (11 000) and Bosnia-Herzegovina (7 900). The Bosnia-Herzegovina group has increased by 6 600 from the last general election. For more information on elections: http://www.ssb.no/english/subjects/00/01/10/

Young people more positive towards immigrants

The population's attitudes towards immigrants vary according to demographic and social factors such as education, age, political opinions, urbanisation, geographic area, contact with immigrants and, to some extent, sex. Education is the most important single factor. Whereas for instance 55 per cent of the population with education at lower secondary level in 2004 agreed that most immigrants represent a source of insecurity in society, only 5 per cent of those with long higher education or a university college education were of the same opinion. People in the oldest age group (67-79 years) are also systematically more sceptical to immigrants and immigration than people in the younger age groups. Apart from age, this is due to educational differences between the age groups and the fact that young people have more contact with immigrants than the elderly. People who have contact with immigrants generally have a more positive attitude towards immigrants than other people.