OSC Scientific Seminar 2021-2022

Friday 1st October 2021, 11:30 am / 1:00 pm (Zoom videoconference)

Assimilation and racialization?
Incorporation patterns among descendant of migrants in Norway

Arnfinn Haagensen Midtbøen

Associate Professor in Sociology, University of Oslo

Comparative research paints a contradictory picture of long-term integration processes. In line with theories of assimilation, descendants of immigrants have higher educational and occupational attainment compared to their immigrant parents. However, in line with theories of racialization, there is a striking stability in patterns of racism and discrimination over time and immigrant generations.
While these outcomes are often seen as mutually exclusive in theory, this talk addresses the question of whether they are connected in ways not properly understood. In discussing this question, I draw on recent and ongoing work on the achievements and experiences of descendants of migrants in Norway, based on rich set of data sources (official registries, surveys, field experiments and in-depth interviews).
I demonstrate that an ongoing process of structural assimilation indeed occurs in Norway. However, I also show that descendants of migrants face discrimination at a level equal to individuals that have themselves migrated, that those who have entered high-status occupations are more likely to report discrimination at the work place compared to individuals in low-status occupations, and that descendants of migrants are concentrated in specific locations in the occupational class structure.
Connecting these pieces of evidence, I argue that we need both a more multifaceted model of assimilation, and that we must explore more carefully how assimilation can be the result of how descendants of migrants strategically navigate a situation in which discrimination is likely to occur.

Registration is mandatory to join the Zoom meeting (the link will be sent one day before)