Ethnic segregation in schools and neighbourhoods: consequences and dynamics (completed)

Illustration: Colourbox.com

About the project

Ethnic segregation in local communities and schools involves individuals and families, and their preferences and decisions on where to live and what schools to send their children to. Ethnic segregation also has a socio-economic component, reflecting differences in families financial resources and prices in the housing market. Segregation may also have a normative side, when individuals within a local community share commonly held prejudices and stereotypical beliefs about group differences related to ethnicity, religion, etc.

Schools and neighbourhoods are of such importance for children, who spend most of their time in local environments. The rapid social changes the last10-20 years underlines the importance of better knowledge of the causes and consequences of segregation dynamics. Earlier studies have reached mixed conclusions on the short-term impact of segregation on children's educational attainment, and few studies have investigated long-term effects of segregation on their life chances. And, perhaps due to the speed of the transitions, the causes of segregation in Western Europe are even less investigated.

This project is divided in two parts, one sub-project on short- and long-term consequences of ethnic school- and neighbourhood segregation for children's life chances, and one sub-project on the causes and dynamics of ethnic school- and neighbourhood segregation. Both parts will use the rich register data of Norway, in addition to simulation techniques. We will in all analyses differentiate between girls and boys that are native born of Norwegian-born parents and native and foreign born children with immigrant backgrounds, such as Pakistani, Indians, etc. Our aim is to provide significant new understandings of the dynamics of ethnic segregation in contemporary immigrant-receiving societies and increase our knowledge about the consequences and causes of ethnic segregation in schools and neighbourhoods.

Objectives

Primary objectives of the project:

To provide new understandings of the dynamics of ethnic segregation across schools and neighbourhoods.
To use register data for solid empirical analyses of the non-random selection of individuals into schools and neighborhoods causing local ethnic and socio-economic segregation where children grow up.
To measure the consequences of segregation across schools and local communities on childrens short- and long-term life chances.
To have an explicit focus on important underlying mechanisms, such as peer-effects.

Secondary objectives of the project:

To analyse children's school and neighbourhood exposure over a longer time period than previous studies, to scrutinize both the duration and the timing of exposure.
To explore the complex and non-linear segregation dynamics to see if there are threshold levels over which families with Norwegian-born parents decide to move
To combine methodological approaches, such as descriptive analysis, econometric modelling and agent-based simulation.

Background

The project is part of the Eilert Sundt Network for Quantitative Social Science. The network connects a portfolio of quantitative sociological and demographic research projects, bringing together very strong researchers in these fields in Norway.