Moving Up or Falling Behind? Intergenerational Socioeconomic Progress among Children of Norwegian Immigrants

Abstract

Using Norwegian registry data, I study intergenerational social mobility in educational attainment and adult earnings among children of immigrants. I find that the degree of intergenerational persistence is slightly weaker among immigrants than in the native population. This indicates higher rates of social mobility among the children of immigrants. Generational progress is also reflected in strongly reduced native-immigrant gaps in completed education and earnings among the immigrant offspring compared to the gaps found in the parental generation. The level of intergenerational catch-up is highest within the national-origin groups characterised by the lowest parental statuses. I also find that children of immigrants achieve higher educational attainment and earnings as adults when compared to children of natives with similar socioeconomic family background and neighbourhood of residence in adolescence. The role of neighbourhood environments appears to be of relatively minor importance for the native-immigrant gaps in socioeconomic attainment. In sum, these results suggest substantial intergenerational convergence in socioeconomic life chances between the children of immigrants and the children of the native born in Norway.