About the project

My experience from working in the field is that many refugees express a clear aspiration for work, but poor linguistic skills and low formal competence creates a gap between them and the labor market. I have observed that several civil society actors are both working actively to create and support ambitions for work and education, and at the same time offering migrants qualifying skills that provides greater opportunities for work. It also seem that a significant number of people "fall through" in the transition from the introduction program to NAV and then loose contact with the most important public entrance to the labor market. During this period, various civil society actors are involved, trying to strengthen the refugees' ability to enter the labor market or at least gravitate towards it.

This project will explore the significance newly arrived refugees’ encounters with civil society have regarding their aspirations and actual participation in the labor market. The target population is newly arrived refugees who have completed the introduction program, but are not working or in any form of education.

With my study I aim to explore the following three research questions:

• What role does civil society actors play in the aspirations of newly arrived refugees to participate in the labor market?
• In what way does civil society contribute to gravitation towards and actual participation in the labor market for newly arrived refugees?
• How does individual and structural factors influence newly arrived refugees aspirations and actual participation in the labor market?

The research project has a longitudinal, qualitative approach and the research design's main focus will be semi-structured individual in-depth interviews and participatory observation.

Background

Master in global studies

Research group

MIGREL