Self-selection Of Immigrants Research Articles

Immigration restriction and the transfer of cultural norms over time and boundaries: the case of religiosity

Abstract We study the effect of an immigration ban on the self-selection of immigrants along cultural traits, and the transmission of these traits to the second generation. We show theoretically that restricting immigration incentivizes to settle abroad individuals with higher attachment to their origin culture, who, under free mobility, would rather choose circular migration. Once abroad, these individuals tend to convey their cultural traits to their children. As a consequence, restrictive immigration policies can foster the diffusion of cultural traits across boundaries and generations. We focus on religiosity, which is one of the most persistent and distinctive cultural traits, and exploit the 1973 immigration ban in West Germany (Anwerbestopp) as a natural experiment. Through a diff-in-diff analysis, we find that second generations born to parents treated by the Anwerbestopp show higher religiosity.

Increasing risk of hepatocellular carcinoma with successive generations in the United States among Mexican American adults: The Multiethnic Cohort.

US-born Latinos have a higher incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) than foreign-born Latinos. Acculturation to unhealthy lifestyle behaviors and an immigrant self-selection effect may play a role. In this study, the authors examined the influence of generational status on HCC risk among Mexican American adults. The analytic cohort included 31,377 self-reported Mexican Americans from the Multiethnic Cohort Study (MEC). Generational status was categorized as: first-generation (Mexico-born; n=13,382), second-generation (US-born with one or two parents born in Mexico; n=13,081), or third-generation (US-born with both parents born in the United States; n=4914). Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression was performed to examine the association between generational status and HCC incidence. In total, 213 incident HCC cases were identified during an average follow-up of 19.5years. After adjusting for lifestyle and neighborhood-level risk factors, second-generation and third-generation Mexican Americans had a 37% (hazard ratio [HR], 1.37; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.98-1.92) and 66% (HR, 1.66; 95% CI, 1.11-2.49) increased risk of HCC, respectively, compared with first-generation Mexican Americans (p for trend=0.012). The increased risk associated with generational status was mainly observed in males (second-generation vs. first-generation: HR, 1.60 [95% CI, 1.05-2.44]; third-generation vs. first-generation: HR, 2.08 [95% CI, 1.29-3.37]). Increasing generational status of Mexican Americans is associated with a higher risk of HCC. Further studies are needed to identify factors that contribute to this increased risk.

Göçün Yerli İntiharlar Üzerindeki Etkisi: Türkiye’den Ampirik Bir Kanıt

This study aims to present empirical evidence on the effect of immigration on native suicides from Türkiye, which has welcomed a massive influx from Syria since 2011. This study focuses on the period between 2009 and 2016 using a quasi-experimental design, which accounts for the self-selection of immigrants to provinces in Türkiye and eliminates a possible bias. An IV-2SLS estimation is conducted to find the causal effect of the Syrian influx on native suicides. The findings show that while the Syrian influx to Türkiye has not increased overall and male suicides, it has increased the crude female suicide rates. The increase is 1.31 percentage points in crude suicide rates when there is a one-percentage-point increase in the provincial refugee share. The results are consistent with the literature, which show evidence that the Syrian influx worsened women’s labor market conditions and promoted male polygamy in Türkiye. This study fulfills a gap in the literature lacking the effect of immigration on suicide by presenting evidence from a case in which the host country received more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees in a period of less than ten years. The study calls for stronger policy measures for Türkiye against female unemployment and polygamy in refugee-intensive provinces of the country. More generally, the study shows that host countries’ immigration policies should account for all characteristics of the areas in their refugee settlement process.

Linguistic Enclaves, Sorting, and Language Skills of Immigrants

The literature argues that linguistic enclaves negatively affect immigrants’ language proficiency by reducing their exposure and incentives to learn destination language. This negative association may, however, be spurious, arising due to the self-selection of immigrants into regions with larger enclaves. Exploiting the natural experiment of the German residential policy, this paper analyses the influence of linguistic enclaves on refugees’ language proficiency. We find no evidence that enclaves hamper German language learning among refugees. Our results are robust to various measurements and model specifications. We conclude that the negative relationship reported in previous research is mainly driven by immigrant’s residential sorting.

Organizations Role in Allocating Immigrants and Native-born Into Analytical versus Interactive Jobs

Applying human capital and social networks-based explanations of the labor market matching framework, this study examines the role of organizational selection channels in allocating high-skilled immigrants and native-born into different types of jobs in the U.S. white-collar labor market. Specifically, it investigates the conditions under which academic organizations are likely to rely on strong versus weakly formalized recruitment channels to screen and hire candidates and its potential effect on sorting immigrants and native-born into analytical versus interactive jobs. Using a nationally representative pooled cross-section sample of PhD scientists and engineers, I demonstrate that when reliable performance records are not readily available such that organizational decision makers rely on faculty referrals to assess the potential of prospective candidates, no immigrant-native differences arise in the job matching process. However, when employment-relevant soft skills about candidates are hard to evaluate and organizations rely on peer referrals to screen applicants, a differential allocation of immigrants and native-born across analytical and interactive jobs are likely to arise because of the former’s lower access to friendship ties than the latter. Thus, human capital-based explanations of labor market matching framework pertaining to the self-selection of immigrants and native-born into analytical versus interactive jobs may overstate individual preferences, knowledge and skills the extent to which employers’ use of specific recruitment channels to hire candidates into specific types of position also contribute to this outcome. Implications of the finding for the representation of immigrant minorities at the upper echelons of organizations are discussed.

Economic Preferences and the Self-selection of Immigrants

Economic Preferences and the Self-selection of Immigrants

Income redistribution and self-selection of immigrants

We analyze the effects of governmental redistribution on migration patterns, using registry data that includes almost the universe of Italian citizens living abroad. Since Italy takes a middle ground in terms of redistribution, both the welfare-magnet effect and the propensity of high-skilled to settle in countries with lower taxes can be studied. Our findings confirm that destination countries with more redistribution receive a negative selection of Italian migrants. Policy simulations are run in order to gauge the magnitude of these effects. We find that sizable increases in redistribution in Italy have small effects on the skill composition of the resident population.

Say it like Goethe: Language learning facilities abroad and the self-selection of immigrants

Moving to rich countries usually results in substantial increases in income for migrants. However, high migration costs entail that only selected groups of potential migrants actually migrate. The availability of language learning facilities in a country could reduce costs of acquiring destination-specific skills and influence the self-selection of migrants. We combine survey data from immigrant cohorts between 2000 and 2014 with data on the country-year specific presence of Goethe Institutes – a German association promoting language acquisition and culture worldwide. We identify strong positive effects on language skills and relevant labor market-related characteristics of immigrants at arrival. The results are strongest for developing countries where opportunities to acquire foreign language skills are particularly scarce and returns to migration are the highest. Placebo regressions suggest that the effects are not driven by the demand for German language learning facilities.

Fertility, migration, and altruism

AbstractMigration is a human capital investment in which parents bear costs and children share returns. Therefore, migrants from a population with heterogeneous intergenerational discount rates will self-select on intergenerational altruism. Intergenerational altruism and fertility are arguably linked, therefore immigrants might self-select on eventual fertility. Soviet Jews who migrated to Israel despite high migration costs averaged almost one child more than members of the same birth cohorts who migrated later, at lower cost. Distinguishing selection from treatment effects using mothers' age at migration, selection accounts for most of that difference (the proportion varies with specification), even with controls for religion and religiosity. Selection on fertility may have other explanations, including cultural preservation. To probe, we conduct an alternative empirical test of immigrant selection on altruism, finding that U.S. immigrants spend more time with grandchildren than do natives. Additionally, immigrant self-selection on fertility provides an alternative explanation for Chiswick's (1978, Journal of Political Economy86(5), 897–921) earnings-overtaking result.

Income Redistribution and Self-Selection of Immigrants

We analyze the effects of governmental redistribution of income on migration patterns,using an Italian administrative dataset that includes information on almost every Italian citizen living abroad. Since Italy takes a middle ground in terms of redistribution, both the welfare-magnet effect from more redistributive countries and the propensity of the high-skilled to settle in countries with lower taxes can be empirically studied. Our findings confirm the hypothesis that destination countries with more redistribution receive a negative selection of Italian migrants. This holds true after accounting for many individual and country level covariates, migration costs, and when testing for stochastic dominance of the skill distributions of migrants and stayers. Policy simulations are run in order to gauge the magnitude of these migration effects. Based on estimated elasticities, we find that sizable increases in the amount of redistribution in Italy have small effects on the skill composition of the resident population.

Selective immigration policies as screening devices and the immigrant–native educational achievement gap

ABSTRACTThe literature on the immigrant–native educational achievement gap is suggestive of a better performance of immigrant students in countries practising selective immigration policies. However, the origin of such differences has not been investigated. I considered both important observed characteristics as well as the role of unobservables in the formation of immigrant–native achievement differences in 4 selective immigration countries. I found that, if the comparison is between selective immigration countries as a group and other European/Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, immigrant students in selective immigration countries perform better. However, the results are heterogeneous and different conclusions apply to each of the 4 countries. The findings are discussed in the context of successful immigration policies as screening devices, which induce a self-selection of immigrants with transferable and adaptive skills. Potentially important are also institutional differences with respect to how inclusionary and conducive to the integration of immigrants into the host country policies are.

The Immigrant-Native Educational Achievement Gap in Countries with Selective Immigration Policies

The literature on the immigrant-native educational achievement gap is suggestive of a better performance of immigrant students in countries practicing selective immigration policies. However, the origin of such differences remains unexplained. I use PISA data and an investigative method which considers both important observed characteristics and the role of unobservables in explaining immigrant-native achievement differences in four selective immigration countries. I find that 1st generation immigrant students generally perform as well as native students after accounting for unobservables. In two countries – Australia and Singapore – 2nd generation immigrant students exhibit a consistent performance advantage even after considering unobservables. In explaining the findings, one needs to look at successful immigration policies as screening devices which induce self-selection of immigrants with transferable and adaptive skills. Finally, institutional differences with respect to how inclusionary and conducive to integration of immigrants into the host country policies are, should also be part of the explanation.

Effects of Human Capital on the Economic Adjustment of North Korean Defectors

I. IntroductionAs of March 2016, more than 29,000 North Korean defectors are settled in South Korea (Ministry of Unification 2016); this group comprises 0.06% of the country's population. The number will exponentially increase if South and North Korea decide to integrate or unify their economies.According to the previous studies, North Korean defectors encounter difficulties when they resettle in South Korea (Jeon 2007; Yi et al. 2007; Yoon 2009). Despite government subsidies, unemployment rate and income considerably differ between South Korean citizens and North Korean defectors. In 2015, the unemployment rate of South Korean citizens was 3.6%, whereas that of North Korean defectors reached 4.8%; moreover, the average monthly wage of defectors was 1.55 million won, which was only 44% of the average monthly wage of South Koreans at 3.49 million won (Korea Hana Foundation 2016; Statistics Korea 2016). Additionally, the separation between these two groups and the differences in their economic and political experiences for 70 years may cause disparity in various aspects. A number of North Korean defectors experience mental or psychological trauma when settling in South Korea.The successful resettlement of North Korean defectors in South Korea is important for the welfare and integration of the two countries. The capability of North Koreans to adapt successfully and quickly to South Korean society can significantly reduce reunification cost. Otherwise, reunification cost and social discord between North and South Koreans can increase dramatically. Social conflicts may also indicate a possibility of political instability of reunified Korea.Important systematic studies on the adjustment of North Korean defectors in South Korea remain lacking. Even studies on the adaptation of immigrants have not reached a consensus on the key determinants of their outcomes (Yang 1994; Safi2010). Factors, such as self-selection of immigrants and the characteristics of their origin and settlement countries, complicate the issue. Apart from these challenges, research on North Korean defectors faces severe deficiencies in terms of data, which is detrimental for conducting quantitative research. Researchers also often fail to obtain sufficient information on the variables of defector experiences in South and North Korea. For example, the surveys of Korea Hana Foundation, the official institution that assists North Korean defectors in South Korea, only cover issues on their experience in South Korean society.The present study uses data of North Korean defectors obtained from a three-wave survey administered by a team of researchers from the Economics Department of Seoul National University. The survey was conducted in August 2011, May 2014, and June 2015 with respective participants of 132, 161, and 191.1 Seoul National University implemented the first wave, whereas Nielsen Korea conducted the last two. The sample of the first wave was constructed via snowball method through personal contacts. The sample population of the first wave is defectors aged 20 or older who leftNorth Korea within a year before the survey. The samples for the second and third waves were stratified by age, sex, and year of entry in South Korea. These samples were randomly drawn from the population of North Korean defectors aged 20 or older who lived in South Korea. Gang survey methodology was applied for all three waves to facilitate interviews with defectors living in the Metropolitan Seoul Area, including Gyeonggi Province.These surveys are unique questionnaires that include a comprehensive number of variables that may affect the adjustment of North Korean defectors to South Korean society. Experiences while living in North Korea and after arriving in the South were specifically explored. Economic variables, such as income, status of labor market participation, and subjective perception variables are also included in the survey.We contribute to existing literature in the following aspects. …

Gender Empowerment and Educational Attainment of US Immigrants and Their Home-Country Counterparts

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the educational self-selection of immigrants to the United States across forty-two countries of origin and analyzes determinants of selectivity, including home-country gender status (as measured by the United Nations’ Gender Empowerment Measure [GEM]). Measuring educational self-selection, the study uses data from the 2006 American Community Survey and the 2000 and 2014 Barro–Lee Educational Attainment Measure to construct the Net Difference Index between immigrants and nonmigrants. It compares the educational attainment difference between immigrants and nonmigrants who remain in the home country and demonstrates that immigrants to the US are more educated than their home-country counterparts across all immigrant groups (positive selection). Regression results further indicate that higher gender inequality in the home country influences more highly educated women to migrate. The paper also confirms that higher migration costs and lower income inequality in the home country influence more highly educated individuals to migrate.

Who Leaves and Who Returns? Deciphering Immigrant Self-Selection from a Developing Country

Existing research examining the self-selection of immigrants suffers from a lack of information on the immigrants’ labor force activities in the home country, quotas limiting who is allowed to enter the destination country, and non-economic factors such as internal civil strife in the home country. Using a novel data set from the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), I analyze a migration flow to the U.S. that suffers from none of these problems. I find that high-skilled workers (relative to the home country skill distribution) are the most likely to migrate from the FSM to the U.S. and that their behavior is explained mainly by the difference in average wages for their skill group. This finding suggests that previous immigration studies have overemphasized the role played by differences in the distributions of countries’ wages and skills. Including information on the immigrants’ characteristics prior to migration is central to my analysis, which highlights the importance of datasets that contain both home and destination country data on immigrants. Given the home country information, I use weather shocks to predict the probability of outmigration, which overcome the usual endogeneity problems in determining self-selection of immigrants. Second, I conduct nearest neighbor matching for immigrants prior to their leaving the home country using home country wages as the outcome variable to determine the nature of selection on unobservable characteristics.

What Can We Learn about Financial Access from U.S. Immigrants? The Role of Country of Origin Institutions and Immigrant Beliefs

Immigrants from countries with more effective institutions are more likely than other immigrants to have a relationship with a bank and to use formal financial markets more extensively. The evidence that a country's institutional environment shapes beliefs and by extension the use of financial services provides support for policies that focus on institutional reforms in promoting financial access. After holding wealth, education, and other factors constant, the impact of institutional quality in the country of origin affects the financial market participation of all immigrant groups except those who have lived in the United States for more than 28 years. These findings are robust to alternative measures of institutional effectiveness, to controlling for additional country of origin characteristics, and to various methods for addressing potential biases caused by immigrant self-selection.

Next Year in Jerusalem ... or in Cologne? Labour Market Integration of Jewish Immigrants from the Former Soviet Union in Israel and Germany in the 1990s

This article focuses on how receiving societies’ structural and institutional characteristics affect immigrants’ labour market performance and progress. Using German census data for 1996 and 2000, and Israeli labour force surveys for the same years, the article compares patterns of self-selection and labour market integration of Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union (FSU) in Israel and Germany during the 1990s. The greater rigidity of the German labour market as compared with the Israeli, combined with the more generous benefits provided to FSU immigrants by the German than the Israeli state, explain many of the cross-national differences in initial labour market performance (unemployment level and occupational status) and labour market progress of FSU immigrants in Israel and Germany. However, contrary to economic theories of immigrant selectivity, we found no appreciable differences in patterns of educational self-selection of immigrants to Israel and Germany.

Migration Flows: Political Economy of Migration and the Empirical Challenges

Immigration barriers began being erected in the New World in the late 19th century. They were motivated by fears that the immigration of unskilled workers would increase inequality. Controlling for economic factors, there appears to have been little independent role for factors such as racism or xenophobia in driving the retreat from liberal migration policies. A statistical analysis of individual voter attitudes towards immigration in the late 20th century leads to somewhat different conclusions: nationalism is strongly associated with more hostile attitudes towards immigrants. Heckscher-Ohlin theory and the Borjas theory of immigrant self-selection also help explain individual voter attitudes.

Economic Assimilation in the United States of Arab and Jewish Immigrants from Israel and the Territories

IN RECENT YEARS, NUMEROUS STUDIES on various aspects of Israeli immigration to the U.S. have been published by Israeli and American social scientists. This is not surprising, given the fact that the U.S. is the country of destination for most Israeli emigrants, and that large-scale emigration is inconsistent with Zionism, the dominant ideology in Israel. Thus emigration in general, and to the U.S. in particular, is viewed in Israel as a major social problem. Perhaps this is why Arab emigration from Israel to the U.S., as well as to other destinations, has rarely been studied. In fact, the vast annotated bibliography on emigration from Israel, published by the Szold Institute,' does not contain a single item discussing emigration of Israeli-Arabs. This paper analyzes Israeli-born immigrants to the U.S., both Jews and Arabs. Specifically, it focuses on Jewish and Arab emigration from Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip to the U.S. until 1980, relying on a subset of the I980 U.S. census. This data set enables us to distinguish between Israeliborn Jews and Arabs. It is thus possible to describe and test hypotheses regarding the types of Jews and Palestinian-Arabs2 who emigrated from Israel and the Occupied Territories to the U.S. The first section of the paper advances the argument that out-migration from Israel and the Occupied Territories to the U.S., unlike in-migration, is governed primarily by economic factors, and that all Jewish and most Arab immigrants to the U.S. can thus be considered economic migrants. The second section briefly discusses theories of immigrant selfselection and economic assimilation and extends them to cases in which one