Economic Assimilation of the 'Third Generation': An Intergenerational Mobility Perspective on Immigration and Integration

Aslan Zorlu () and Wouter van Gent
Additional contact information
Aslan Zorlu: University of Amsterdam
Wouter van Gent: University of Amsterdam

No 13855, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper examines ethnic disparities in intergenerational economic mobility for the children of second-generation "migrants." Using rich register data for adult children aged 20 to 30, we provide empirical evidence on the economic assimilation outcomes of the descendants of immigrants who mainly arrived in the Netherlands in the post-World War II period. Acknowledging a high degree of diversity in the starting positions of immigrants associated with their dominant migration motives, we estimate the Dutch-migrant group gap in incomes from an intergenerational mobility perspective. Our descriptive rank-rank analysis reveals significant ethnic disparities in absolute and relative intergenerational income mobility. The absolute mobility of the ethnic groups we study appears to have the following rank order: Moroccan, Turkish Surinamese, Indish, German, and Dutch. While a higher level of intergenerational transmission of parental income narrows the gap for Turkish and Surinamese children, it widens the gap for Indish and Moroccan children. Our decomposition analysis shows that the ethnic disparities found for the Moroccan, Turkish, and Surinamese third generation are entirely explained by their relatively young ages and associated unfavorable socioeconomic positions, and by their lower parental income levels.

Keywords: second generation; third generation; income; immigrants (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J15 J31 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2020-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-mig and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published - published as ' Economic Assimilation of the 'Third Generation': An Intergenerational Mobility Perspective' in: International Migration Review, 2024, 58 (2), 734-763.

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp13855.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13855

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().