Innvandrerungdom – integrasjon og marginalisering - NOVA

Summary
This report seeks to penetrate the reasons why immigrant youth are more
delinquent and asocial than Norwegian youth. The report is based on data
from Young in Norway 2002. As in previous surveys, immigrant youth score
higher on a measure of criminality. This is above all true of secondgeneration
immigrants, and the differences are particularly large where
violence is concerned. The issue is brief: Is the greater delinquency of
immigrant youth due in part to weaker integration and weaker bonds to
Norwegian society?
All in all a varied picture is presented. It is difficult to draw any firm
conclusion as to who are better integrated – Norwegians or immigrants. But
the differences stand firm when other explanatory variables are introduced.
Immigrant youth, and especially those in the second generation, are more
delinquent than Norwegian youth.
The main point and the main conclusion is that differences between
Norwegians and immigrants in terms of propensity to commit serious crimes
cannot be fully explained by a theory that Norwegian youth are better
integrated in Norwegian society. Moreover, a difference persists between
first- and second-generation immigrant youth in the sense that secondgeneration
youth are more delinquent. This difference too is not readily
explainable in terms of poor integration. On the contrary, there are a number
of indications that second-generation immigrants are better integrated than
their predecessors.
– Innvandrerungdom – integrasjon og marginalisering – 77