ABSTRACT
This chapter builds on the Marshallian notion that citizenship entails not only civic and political rights but also economic welfare. Accordingly, immigrants’ full citizenship will presuppose economic incorporation. The chapter examines this topic among African and Asian refugees in Norway. With longer stays, refugees may acquire better language skills and more work experience, potentially leading to diminishing differences between refugees’ and natives’ average incomes. Analyses covering 20 years (2001 to 2020) showed, however, that while refugees’ incomes increased markedly during the first years after arrival, deviations from the native level widened anew after eight to ten years of residence. Unstable labour market attachment appears as a major reason for this. Furthermore, macroeconomic growth and inclusionary policies could have led to more successful economic incorporation for recent refugee cohorts than for earlier ones. The findings contradicted also this expectation because income trajectories among those who came around 2000 were more favourable, not worse, than the trajectories of the later 2010 refugee cohort. In sum, this chapter indicates that the economic incorporation of African and Asian refugees in Norway has not improved over time, which is worrying with respect to the future prospects of social inclusion and full citizenship for these immigrants.
