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One municipality does not fit all The employment of refugees in Norway across municipalities of different centrality and size

Alicia Adsera, Princeton University
Synøve N. Andersen, Statistics Norway
Marianne Tønnessen, Oslo Metropolitan University

Refugees coming to Norway are assigned to a municipality where they start their integration process. These municipalities offer very different contexts for refugees’ access to employment. Using rich register data, we study how the employment of a refugee varies by both the centrality and the population size of the municipality to which he/she is assigned, conditional on existing labor market conditions and the share of non-Western immigrants. Results show that refugees assigned to the least central municipalities are most likely to be employed the first years after arrival. However, one municipality type does not fit all: Population size matters more for men that it does for women and there is persistent disadvantage for low educated men assigned to large municipalities. For women, a high share of non-Western immigrants correlates with lower long-term employment. Municipality context seems to matter the least for highly educated refugees of both genders.

Keywords: Economic analysis, Refugees, Neighbourhood/contextual effect analysis

See paper.

  Presented in Session 74. Labour Market Position and Economic Effects of Migration