Many European countries have introduced mandatory integration courses for refugees. Evaluations often find short-term economic gains, but evidence on long-term social and political integration is limited.
📌 What the study asks
- Did Norway’s Introductory Program — an intensive, mandatory two-year full-time coursework requirement for refugees — change refugees’ long-run integration trajectories?
📌 How arrival timing created a natural experiment
- A staggered national rollout produced quasi-random variation in refugees’ arrival dates, enabling causal identification of program effects.
- Outcomes were followed for up to 15 years after arrival to capture both short- and long-run effects.
📌 What was measured and where the data come from
- Administrative records were used to track objective indicators of political and social integration, including:
- citizenship acquisition
- electoral turnout
- intermarriage
- residential segregation patterns
- A range of political and social attitudes was also examined to assess non-behavioral changes.
📌 Key findings
- The Introductory Program produced positive effects on short-term economic outcomes.
- Little to no observable impact was found on political or social integration over a 15-year horizon as measured by citizenship, turnout, intermarriage, and residential patterns.
- Analyses of political and social attitudes likewise reveal similar null effects.
📌 Why this matters
- Results suggest that mandatory, classroom-based coursework — even when intensive and sustained for two years — may not be an effective lever for shaping refugees’ long-term social or political integration, despite yielding short-term economic benefits.
