The impact of immigration on the Norwegian labour market.

Abstract

As immigration levels increase in Norway, there has been a growing concern of whether jobs of native workers are being taken by immigrants. Another issue is: does an increase in labour supply (as a result of immigration) lead to a fall in wages of native workers? These two concerns have been at the centre of most policy debates in recent year. This thesis provides a blueprint on how research on the impact of immigration on the unemployment rate and wages of native workers can be carried out using natural experiments. Particularly, I present a difference-in-differences research design which can be applied in an empirical immigration study involving different groups and periods within a natural experiment framework. I also present a theoretical model based on modern labour economics which gives a detailed explanation of how immigration affects the labour market of the host country which is globally applicable and can be applied within the context of Norway. This thesis also provides a summary of the Norwegian migration history, and a brief account of the labour market. To the best of my knowledge there is no literature on the labour market impact of immigration which makes use of natural experiments in Norway. This study maybe a starting point for a possible empirical immigration study which makes use of natural experiments in Norway.