Immigrants' assimilation process in a segmented labor market

Arbeitspapier

While much of the literature on immigrants' assimilation has focused on countries with a large tradition of receiving immigrants and with flexible labor markets, very little is known on how immigrants adjust to other types of host economies. With its severe dual labor market, and an unprecedented immigration boom, Spain presents a perfect natural experiment to analyze immigrations' assimilation process. Using data from the 2000 to 2008 Spanish Labor Force Survey, we find that immigrants are more occupationally mobile than natives, and that much of this greater flexibility is explained by immigrants' assimilation process soon after arrival. However, we find little evidence of convergence, especially among women and high skilled immigrants. This suggests that instead of integrating, immigrants are occupationally segregating, implying that there is both imperfect substitutability and underutilization of immigrants' human capital.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 4394

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination ; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity ; Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers ; Job, Occupational, and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
• Subject: Immigrants' assimilation effects ; cohort effects ; occupational distributions and mobility ; segmented labor markets ; Migranten ; Berufliche Integration ; Arbeitsmobilität ; Arbeitsmarktsegmentierung ; Spanien

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Alcobendas, Miguel Angel ; Rodríguez-Planas, Núria
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2009

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/36373
• URN: urn:nbn:de:101:1-20091009957
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET