Neighbourhood attainment of children of immigrants in Greater Oslo: Intergenerational inertia and the role of education

Abstract

One element in the integration of new groups of inhabitants is location in the neighbourhood hierarchy. We define neighbourhood hierarchy in Oslo according to the median income of working age males in the neighbourhood, and use a rich register-based data set to describe neighbourhood attainment (i.e. location in the hierarchy of neighbourhoods) subsequent to completion of education. We find that descendants of parents of Asian or African background systematically occupy lower status neighbourhoods than do descendants of natives. Higher education reduces differences in neighbourhood attainment between natives and descendants of African and Asian parents, but it does not eliminate the differences. Part of the differences can be due to some kind of intergenerational inertia, we test for this in a multivariate regression frame. The interdependency between median income in the neighbourhood when aged 16 and neighbourhood attainment is stronger than between parental income at 16 and attainment. Moreover, controlling for income variables, the educational premiums for natives vanishes; for descendants of Asian and Africans, they are reduced but remain significant. These results lead us to ask whether higher education for children of immigrants is a vehicle for social mobility, while it for children of natives is a means for maintaining privileges.