Compared to other countries, the Norwegian welfare state allocates relatively significant resources to refugees and immigrants who have recently arrived in the country. Nevertheless, a significantly higher proportion of people with an immigrant background are outside the labor market compared to the general population, and this has been the case for an extended period. This is particularly true for women and refugees.
The EQUALPART project investigates how this group receives support to be included in the labor market beyond/after the introductory program, with assistance from the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) (qualification program, social assistance), labor-oriented measures, and through cooperation with the voluntary sector. One of our overarching questions is: What ambitions does the Norwegian state have for inclusion beyond the introductory program? The project connects different perspectives, actors, and levels to illuminate this, and places particular focus on the context in which individual actions and rationalities arise.
Legal considerations play a central role in the analyses of the project's empirical data. We examine how rights that exist on paper are upheld in practice. The project contributes new knowledge about the reasons why women with an immigrant background are more likely than others to be outside the labor market. We examine the interplay between established practices, legislation, and the actors involved – the women themselves, street-level bureaucrats, project managers, political and administrative leadership in municipalities, employers, social entrepreneurs, and the voluntary sector. In the project, we also study the effects of measures targeted at the target group (NorA in Bergen), and conduct long-term ethnographic studies of the efforts made to promote labor-oriented inclusion.
Furthermore, the project contributes new perspectives on how the welfare state appears in its role as an employer when the goal is work and inclusion. For many women with an immigrant background, health and social care services are an important workplace. Municipalities and county municipalities around the country have become aware of immigrant women and the opportunity to solve staffing problems with their available workforce. They have developed educational programs, qualification courses, and recruitment strategies to fill this gap with these "new hands." However, the health and social care sector has historically been a sector characterized by part-time work and zero-hour contracts.Through ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with both employers and employees, EQUALPART investigates whether municipal health and social care services serve as a good inclusion arena for women with an immigrant background. We ask- (how) are they truly included?
Website: https://www.hvl.no/prosjekt/2530045/
EQUALPART addresses knowledge needs on the interplay between different factors at different levels, more specifically, on how and which context(s) matter(s) to understand migrant women’s marginalized position in the labour market and seeks to explore possible solutions to the identified challenges.
EQUALPART focuses on the inclusion of migrant women in working life and employment beyond the period of the first years after their arrival (post-intro), and on the different and multi-scalar contexts that shape their labour market outcomes. The project applies a multi-and interdisciplinary approach including a) research on measures and their effectiveness (including an RCT study) b) a quantitative study of the impact of local (neighbourhood) characteristics on labour market outcomes c) a social-legal analysis of the implementation of services in order to provide equal opportunities for all d) two qualitative studies where we study different individual agents' perceptions and personal experiences and how these development over time (0-18 months) as well as a comparative case study where we explore implications of the policy idea(l) of inclusion through labour (the health care sector and elderly care as an example) on migrant women's opportunities for participation on equal grounds and upward social mobility.