The Making of Immigrant Niches in an Affluent Welfare State

Abstract

This article explores how immigrant niches have emerged within two traditional working-class industries in Norway. Drawing on extensive case studies in urban and coastal areas, we analyze how employers perceive the availability and desirability of native-born and immigrant workers and discuss how these perceptions are related to underlying changes in the structure of employment. The article contributes to the literature by developing a general model of the formation of immigrant niches as well as pointing out the context-specific institutional conditions that explain how and why such niches emerge in the first place.