As a proportion, resettlement refugees make up 17 per cent of all those who have come to Norway with a refugee background, and 6 out of ten comes from one of the following countries: Syria, Iran, Vietnam, Congo and Iraq. Since 2014, half of the resettled refugees who have come to Norway are from Syria.
Nearly half of the resettlement refugees are under the age of 18 when they arrive in the country, and the proportion of young people is increasing. The gender distribution has changed over time. Most of resettlement refugees has historically been male individuals. Since 2009 we have seen a shift towards resettling more women than men. The beginning of 2023 was the first time the distribution of men and women was approximately equal among resettlement refugees. As with other refugees, resettlement refugees are residing throughout the country. They live to greater extent in the metropolitan area than the population in general, but not to the same extent as immigrants in general and other refugees.
The educational attainment among resettlement refugees in Norway is varied, with nearly half having completed only primary school. This is approximately in line with refugees in general but significantly lower than the educational levels among immigrants overall and the entire population. There are also noticeable variations based on country of origin and length of residence, where those who have lived in Norway for over 10 years generally have higher educational attainment compared to those with shorter residency.
In the fourth quarter of 2021, a total of two out of three resettlement refugees between the ages of 15 and 66 were in work or education / introduction scheme, and this proportion has been virtually unchanged in recent years. Among the large group of Syrian resettlement refugees, around 65 per cent are in work or education, but fully 25 per cent are still in the introduction programme. Overall, just under half (48 per cent) of all resettlement refugees in Norway were employed in November 2021, and this is 3 percentage points higher than in November 2020. The proportion of employed is clearly higher among male resettlement refugees (52 per cent) than among women (43 per cent). There is a relatively strong connection between length of stay and employment, but at the same time there is variation according to country of origin. Compared with the figures for 2019 and 2020, it is Syrians who have changed their status on the labor market to the greatest extent, but still only 1 in 4 Syrian resettlement refugees is employed. There is also a big difference between women and men from Syria, and more than twice as many men (33 per cent) as women (14 per cent) are employed.
The resettlement refugees have a low income level, both when we compare with the entire population and all immigrants. However, there is little that separates resettlement refugees from all refugees taken as a whole. While the transfer refugees have a median income corresponding to 66 per cent of the entire population's income level, persons in refugee households have a median income corresponding to 68 per cent of the population. Migrant refugees with the longest period of residence, such as those from Vietnam, also has the highest incomes.
Resettlement refugees have a significantly larger share with persistent low income (49 per cent), compared with the entire population (10 per cent) and all immigrants (26 per cent). However, there is little that separates resettlement refugees from all persons with a refugee background, where 42 per cent have persistent low income.