Suchergebnisse

AbstractThis article aims (1) to investigate whether immigrants in the Norwegian population and their descendants differ in their feelings of being socially excluded from society compared with others born in Norway ('natives'), and (2) to test empirically whether these differences reflect differences in human and economic capital (i.e., education, work, income, and material deprivation) and factors related to minority/majority issues, such as citizenship. The data were drawn from the Norwegian part of the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions survey. The results show that immigrants—especially from Asia, Africa, Latin America, Oceania, non‐EU European countries, and descendants of immigrants—feel more socially excluded than natives. For immigrants from Africa, Asia, et al., and Europe other countries, human and economic capital are linked to these differences. Immigrants from Europe other countries did not differ from natives when adjusting for education and work. Differences between natives and immigrants from Africa, Asia, et al. and descendants of immigrants remained even after controlling for various factors. The study indicates that immigrants from outside the Nordic countries with secondary education feel socially excluded to a higher degree than other immigrants. One reason could be that they may have skills not recognised in the Norwegian labour market. The study also finds that immigrants with Norwegian citizenship feel less excluded from society than other immigrants. Length of stay and social recognition are possible explanations for these results.

In this study, we investigated the work and welfare‐state trajectories of three cohorts of middle‐aged Norwegian inhabitants over a period of two decades (1994–2014). The period of this study is particularly interesting because of an extensive welfare reform that was initiated in 2006 and completed in 2011. We addressed two questions: What were the most typical labour market and welfare‐state trajectories for middle‐aged people over the past two decades, and have they changed? Second, did the work and welfare‐state trajectories of a major target group of the NAV reform – adults with a high risk of health‐related exclusion – change during our observation period? Over the period, we witnessed a sharp drop in the number of people in stable employment. Furthermore, rather than solving the problem of permanent health‐related exclusion from the labour market, policy changes have created a new problem by steering people into temporary and less secure income sources from the welfare state.

AbstractInternet/web‐based forms of communication have increasingly been implemented by welfare agencies. However, there have been few studies of the experiences of welfare service users and the consequences of new technology for welfare service users. To what extent is the new technology adopted by the Norwegian Welfare and Labour Organization (NAV) used, and how do the users apply and experience the new possibilities? Do screen‐to‐screen encounters replace face‐to‐face encounters, and is this trend affected by age, gender, education or type of benefit? To answer these questions, we combine survey data, short‐term fieldwork in welfare reception areas and qualitative interviews with people receiving health and work‐related benefits. Our study indicates that screen‐to‐screen interaction in general does not replace face‐to‐face encounters, as many face‐to‐face encounters are related to screen communication. However, digital competence combined with life circumstances appears to be the source of a new divide between welfare service users.

The purpose of this paper is to compare poverty among lone parents households and
couples households with children in Norway and Germany measuring income poverty,
material deprivation and receptions of social assistance with some separate numbers for
formerly West and East Germany. As expected, the rates of income poverty and
material deprivation are generally higher in Germany than Norway, and among lone
parents households than among couples with children. However, focusing on receptions
of social assistance the results become more complex, with Norwegian lone parents
being the household group most frequently receiving social assistance. The results show
that the different dimensions of poverty are not independent of one another but at the
same time as they are not totally overlapping. Besides the impact of household
characteristic and welfare regime, poverty also seems to be related to labor market
factors.