In Norway, immigrants receive higher levels of social assistance than natives. How can we explain this difference? After controlling for differences in take-up rates through a two-step Heckman procedure, we attempt to answer this question by exploiting rich data from administrative registers. We operationalise social assistance in the Norwegian context by employing a composite variable that includes: (a) financial assistance, (b) housing allowance and (c) qualification benefit. We quantitatively analyze the difference in benefit levels of social assistance between the first and second generations of immigrants and the benchmark levels of the non-immigrant population through a Kitagawa-Oaxaca-Blinder (KOB) decomposition exercise. The results of the analysis indicate that a significant portion of the gap in benefit reception between immigrant groups and natives is due to observable characteristics (42% for immigrants and 69% for their descendants), with unobservable cultural and behavioural factors explaining the remaining portion of the gap.

中文翻译：

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移民和社会援助：来自挪威福利国家的证据

在挪威，移民获得的社会援助水平高于当地人。我们如何解释这种差异？在通过两步赫克曼程序控制了吸收率的差异后，我们试图通过利用来自行政登记册的丰富数据来回答这个问题。我们通过使用一个复合变量在挪威背景下实施社会援助，该变量包括：(a) 财政援助，(b) 住房津贴和 (c) 资格福利。我们通过Kitagawa-Oaxaca-Blinder（KOB）分解练习定量分析了第一代和第二代移民的社会救助福利水平与非移民人口基准水平的差异。