Spatial Assimilation at a Halt? Intergenerational Persistence in Neighborhood Contexts among Immigrant Minorities in Norway

Abstract

Spatial assimilation theory claims that immigrants’ acculturation and socioeconomic progress will lead to converging neighborhood attainment relative to non-migrant natives. Recently, it has been argued that equalization of local services and life chances across neighborhoods in egalitarian welfare states may delay spatial assimilation by reducing immigrants’ incentives to move out of low-income areas with many (co-ethnic) immigrant neighbors. In this article, we extend this argument to study whether neighborhood equalization also contributes to intergenerational persistence in neighborhood contexts among descendants of immigrants in Norway. Using administrative data, we find that immigrant descendants as adults often remain in neighborhood contexts that resemble their childhood neighborhoods, characterized by relative economic disadvantage and comparatively few ethnic majority residents. Intergenerational persistence in neighborhood contexts is strongest among descendants of immigrants from Pakistan, the Middle East, and Africa. The remaining immigrant–native gaps in spatial economic inequality largely reflect differences in individuals’ education and earnings, family background, and childhood neighborhood context, but these factors matter less for ethnic neighborhood segregation. For both economic and ethnic dimensions of neighborhood attainment, childhood neighborhood context is the factor that matters most in accounting for immigrant–native gaps, whereas individual socioeconomic attainment is the least important. Overall, our findings point to a pattern of “uneven assimilation” among immigrant descendants, where spatial assimilation is slow despite rapid socioeconomic progress across immigrant generations in the egalitarian Norwegian welfare state.

Broadband Internet Access and Adolescents' Academic Outcomes: Heterogeneous Effects among Lower Secondary School Students in Norway

“…We classified students into four groups based on their parents' country of birth. We followed a similar categorisation of regions to that developed in recent studies with Norwegian data, distinguishing between western and non-western immigrants (Hermansen, 2017;Hermansen et al, 2022;Lillehagen & Birkelund, 2022): (1) "Two Norwegian": both parents were born in Norway; (2) "Two non-western": both parents were born in non-western countries;…”

Entering the Mainstream Economy? Workplace Segregation and Immigrant Assimilation

“…Previous research show that earnings inequality relative to natives have been reduced by about three-fourths from the immigrant generation to their native-born children, with the largest gains found within non-European minorities characterized by the largest initial disadvantages, and descendants increasingly enter high-status professions (Hermansen 2013(Hermansen , 2016Midtbøen and Nadim 2021). Despite upward socioeconomic mobility, immigrant descendants as adults often live in neighborhood contexts that resemble the areas where they grew up, characterized by relative economic disadvantage and comparatively few natives, and find partners among members of their national origin group (Hermansen et al 2022;Wiik et al 2021).…”

“…However, research on immigrant adolescents also find persistent ethnic boundaries in friendship networks and disproportionately high ethnoracial homophily in school and neighborhood contexts with fewer natives (Leszczensky and Pink 2019;Smith et al 2016). Recent studies from Europe also find that residential segregation often is highly persistent across immigrant generations (Hermansen, Hundebo and Birkelund 2022;McAvay 2018) and that intermarriage with natives often also remains low among immigrant descendants (Hannemann et al 2018;Wiik, Dommermuth and Holland 2021). Thus, the extent to which second-generation workplace segregation is lower because immigrant descendants are better integrated in the social networks of natives is an open question.…”

Ethnic enclaves, early school leaving, and adolescent crime among immigrant youth

“…Nonetheless, immigrant youth often experience educational and labour market progress compared to their parents and native Norwegians ETHNIC ENCLAVES, EARLY SCHOOL LEAVING, AND ADOLESCENT CRIME (Hermansen, 2016). Despite this, immigrant youth in several national-origin groups are overrepresented in official crime statistics (Andersen et al, 2017) and, as adults, often settle in disadvantaged and immigrant-dense neighborhoods resembling those where they grew up (Hermansen, Hundebo and Birkelund, 2022). Finally, immigrant concentration in schools seems to have limited negative consequences for both majority and minority students' education once sorting is adequately addressed (Hermansen and Birkelund, 2015) and spatial variation in children's life chances is comparatively low in Norway (Hermansen et al, 2020).…”