Integration as a catalyst for assimilation

Arbeitspapier

We draw a distinction between the social integration and economic assimilation of migrants, and study an interaction between the two. We define social integration as blending into the host country's society, and economic assimilation as acquisition of human capital that is specific to the host country's labor market. We show that a non-integrated migrant finds it optimal to acquire a relatively limited quantity of human capital; with fellow migrants constituting his only comparison group, a non-integrated migrant does not have a relative deprivation-based incentive to close the income gap with the natives. However, when a migrant is made to integrate, his social proximity to the natives exposes him to relative deprivation, which in turn prompts him to form more destination-specific human capital in order to increase his earnings and narrow the income gap with the natives. In this way, social integration becomes a catalyst for economic assimilation.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: University of Tübingen Working Papers in Economics and Finance ; No. 59

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Microeconomic Behavior: Underlying Principles ; International Migration ; Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination ; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity ; Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers ; Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration ; Cultural Economics; Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology: General
• Subject: Assimilation ; Social proximity ; Interpersonal comparisons ; Relative deprivation ; Human capital formation

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Stark, Oded ; Jakubek, Marcin
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): University of Tübingen, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences
• (where): Tübingen
• (when): 2013

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/80342
• URN: urn:nbn:de:bsz:21-opus-69821
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET