[Disability pensions among immigrants in Oslo].

The prevalence of vocational disability pensions is now much higher among immigrants from Pakistan, Turkey and Morocco who settled in Norway in the late 1960' and early 1970' in order to find work than among the Norwegian population in general. The present study covers two cohorts of males and females aged 40-44 and 50-54 years of age in receipt of disability pensions. Musculoskeletal pain syndromes are far more prevalent among the immigrants as basis for a pension than among the Norwegian disabled population. In contrast, psychiatric diagnoses are less frequent among the immigrants. The above differences are discussed. The living conditions and particularly the working conditions of the immigrants, whose jobs are characterized by physical hardships and long working hours, may be an important reason for the high prevalence of vocational disability. Psychiatric diagnoses may be concealed because of their stigmatizing nature. Early retirement from work is more common in the countries from where the immigrants came and they thus tend to apply for a disability pension. This means that the Norwegian insurance system, with its rather liberal policy of consent, takes over many of the social and economic obligations which were traditionally part of family and kinship obligations in the former culture of the immigrants.