MOROCCANS' ASSIMILATION IN SPAIN: FAMILY-BASED VERSUS LABOR-BASED MIGRATION

Núria Rodriguez-Planas and Raquel Vegas

Middle East Development Journal (MEDJ), 2011, vol. 03, issue 02, 119-139

Abstract: An important immigration policy question is to identify the best criteria to select among potential migrants. At least two methodological problems arise: The host country's immigration policy regime's endogeneity and immigrants' unobserved heterogeneity. To address the first problem, we focus on a country with an unprecedented immigration boom that lets immigrantsfreelyinto the country, for example Spain. To address the second problem, we focus on a large and homogenous group of immigrants: Moroccans. Using the 2007Encuesta Nacional de Immigración(ENI), we find that family-based immigrants are less likely to work than their labor-based counterparts both upon their arrival and ten years later. This conclusion was made by focusing on a very homogenous group of migrants (Moroccans) who tend to be low-skilled, and after controlling for the migrants' self-selection with employment history prior to and at arrival. Our Heckman-corrected estimates highlight that there are no monthly earnings differences by reason of arrival, and that failure to correct for labor force participation strongly biases these results.

Keywords: Legal and employment assimilation; Southern and Eastern Mediterranean men and women (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Moroccans' Assimilation in Spain: Family-Based versus Labor-Based Migration (2012)
Journal Article: Moroccans’ Assimilation in Spain: Family-Based Versus Labor-Based Migration (2011)
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DOI: 10.1142/S1793812011000387

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