This paper reports on the summary of findings from a systematic scoping review of literature in both English and Norwegian published in the past four years in the topic of labour market integration of refugees in Norway. During the process, two reviewers were involved, over 200 articles are located and screened; 87 relevant literature are identified, with only 18 in English and the rest in Norwegian. The article offers a detailed summary of the main themes and findings that emerged from this young and fragmented body of literature, including key features of the introduction programme, local adaptations of policies and their outcomes, policies focused on women, collaboration with civil society, and how these have achieved or failed in bringing more economic integration.

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Conference paper to be presented in International Political Science Association 26th World Congress of Political Science, New Nationalism in an Open World, 10th - 15th July, 2021, online. Panel RC46.21 “The Political Dynamics of Welcoming and Including Immigrants” 13th July 2021 10.00-11.45 UTC

This paper presents Nessa's PhD research project and the preliminary findings thus far. The project explores the significance of newly arrived refugees’ encounters with civil society organizations regarding their aspirations and actual participation in the labor market, and how these evolve as they gradually settle into Norwegian society. After the two-year full time Introduction Programme, a significant number of participants "fell out" of the path towards employment or education. During this period, civil society actors can play a crucial role in avoiding a reversed language process, creating and maintaining aspiration for work in a time of waiting, and preventing isolation by connecting refugees and the majority population.  Targeting at newly arrived refugees who are not working or in education, this study has so far yielded some preliminary findings worthy of further exploration. These include the experiened barriers related to language, religious discrimination, and idleness after the introducatoin progreamme. The empirical data of this paper draws on interviews with newly arrived refugees (9) and representatives for civil society organizations (4), along with participant observation over a period of 6 months with two different organizations.

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Paper presented at the conference "Migrating World: interdisciplinary approaches to Migration and Integration" organized by  London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research and Interdisciplinary Research Foundation,
London, UK, 20th February, 2021

This paper presents the authors’ reflections about the ends and means of integration from an on-going project about labour market integration of newly arrived refugees in Norway. It elaborates on four aspects which are currently under-researched, and argues for multi-disciplinary, mixed-methods approach to reclaim the meaning of integration as opposed to assimilation. These are: 1) Social capital and inclusive communities; 2) Quality of jobs offered to immigrants; 3) Political participation; and 4) Immigrant entrepreneurship. 

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Paper presented at the 17th Nordic Migration Resesarch Conference
"Colonial/racial histories, Narratives and Transnational Migration"
organized by University of Helsinki,
Helsinki, Finland, 11th - 14th January, 2021 

This systematic scoping review summarizes the body of literature in both English and Norwegian published between 2015 to August 2019 on the topic of labour market integration of refugees in Norway. The review is centred upon the research question “What research have been done about labour market integration of recently arrived refugees in Norway?” During the process, a protocol was designed and followed. Over 200 articles were subsequently identified through systematic searches on databases using specific keywords strings, and screened by two different reviewers. 87 of them are included in this scoping review. 

The scoping review is a descriptive summary that includes statistics of the body of literature included. It mainly displays the distribution of articles in Norwegian and English, their topics, research methods, data sources, and types of publication to show the current trend observed in the defined field of literature in the Norwegian context.