Abstract
This study investigates the relationship between the workplace concentration of immigrant-origin minorities and turnover among immigrants and second-generation children of immigrants using linked employer-employee administrative data covering the entire Norwegian labor market. Drawing on organizational demographic theories, we test whether exposure to higher shares of immigrant-background coworkers, on the one hand, increases immigrants’ likelihood of staying in the workplace—in line with theories of homophily and social contact—or, on the other, heightens their likelihood of leaving the workplace—in line with group threat and group competition theories. However, turnover among second-generation immigrants may be less affected by workplace immigrant composition due to intergenerational assimilation and weakened ethnic boundaries. We show that immigrants’ likelihood of workplace exit declines when the share of immigrant-background coworkers increase and this effect is solely driven by exposure to contact among coworkers in same-skill occupations. This pattern is similar among members of the second generation. We also find the immigrants’ likelihood of workplace exit is reduced when they work for an immigrant-background top manager. We interpret these findings as supporting social contact theories claiming that improved work environment and coworker support reduces turnover among immigrant-background workers in ethnically diverse organizational contexts.