Labor Market Discrimination against African Immigrants’: Between Employment Vulnerability and Social Exclusion

Abstract

This article explores labor market discrimination against African immigrants’ who are settled in Norway. For this, it considers to what extent the career prospects of the migrants’ are limited in the Norwegian labor market. In addition, it examines how the employment position of the migrants’ affect their socioeconomic status. The article, further, analyze and discuss the factors that mitigate or reinforce inequality in the sector. Using a qualitative interview of 20 respondents with backgrounds from seven African countries, the article uncovers that, the immigrants’ seem to suffer from significant discrimination in employment. To this end, labor market discrimination warrants critical analysis aimed at transformation by confronting conditions of unequal power relations in the employment fields. The article recognizes that equal opportunities and a more dynamic labor market is an indispensable element of labor inclusion and integration in mainstream society. Against the background of increasing ethnic diversity, a greater emphasis on equal access to the labor market will have positive ramifications on belongingness, social cohesion, participation and collective well-being. In contrast, inequalities in employment often coincide with destabilizing circuits of social marginalization, vulnerability, poverty, and financial stigma. Accordingly, this article allows stakeholders to recognize the increasingly changing realities in the employment fields, adopt proactive measures, appropriate new world of work and the enhancement of human capital.