Nav fear that poverty will be handed down in immigrant families
On Wednesday Nav publishes a recent analysis of long-term recipients of social assistance. The analysis focuses on those who receive social assistance for more than one year.
It reveals that 29 percent of those who receive social assistance for a long time have children, and they have on average more children than other people on social assistance. Immigrants are overrepresented, accounting for nearly half of the long-term recipients.
Knowledge Director Yngvar Åsholt in Nav is concerned about the many children who grow up in wretched conditions.
– The biggest concern, even if you look into the future, is the immigrant groups where many people are receiving long-term social assistance. If we fail to get immigrants into the labor market, we see that the chance increases that they and their families are being marginalized in society, he says to the newspaper Klassekampen.
Åsholt especially fear that poverty will be “inherited” by people born into families where the mother or father stays on social assistance for a long time.
According Nav analysis , only 8 percent of those who receive social assistance for a long time, are a part of the the labor market. Among those receiving social assistance for short periods, twice as many have full or part time work.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
