Immigration, training and an inclusive labour market

Sted: FAFO

Researcher: Anne Britt Djuve
Funded by the Norwegian Research council and the basis of a PhD thesis.

The study explores how the welfare state and the labour market – together and/or separately – can handle the challenges and the possibilities in a multi-ethnic work-life. Some of the more pressing challenges are related to the task of facilitating the entry of new refugees into the Norwegian labour market. An important task is to ensure effective qualification or training programs for newly arrivals, but also to reduce the challenges immigrants face when trying to communicate skills and ambitions to potential employers. Active labour market programs and other forms of on-the-job training have shown good results on both accounts for these particular groups of unemployed. An important task is thus to facilitate a larger role for employers in the training programs for newly arrived refugees. This leads our focus of attention towards identifying relations between public policy and decisions of participation in training, both among employers and among immigrants.