Beyond “White Flight”: school mobility and local school attendance among native and immigrant families in Oslo, Norway

This article investigates how school choice contributes to processes of social and ethnic segregation in the context of Oslo, Norway – a city marked by strong egalitarian welfare traditions, a comprehensive public education system, but high levels of residential and school segregation. Drawing on administrative data from Oslo’s primary schools, we examine which pupils attend schools outside their assigned catchment area and the characteristics of the schools that families avoid and select. Our findings show that opting out is not limited to socio-economically advantaged groups or native Norwegian families. On the contrary, immigrant-background and lower-middle income families frequently engage in school mobility – probably as a strategy to avoid disadvantaged schools or access more “Norwegian” environments. This dynamic contributes to lowering citywide ethnic segregation, but in vulnerable districts, it reinforces school-level disadvantage. Finally, Norwegian reading proficiency, rather than mathematics or English performance, emerges as a relevant pull factor. These findings nuance dominant assumptions in the literature, highlighting how constrained school mobility patterns can reinforce differentiation even in a comprehensive system. The article concludes by discussing implications for education policy and future research.