Integration as a catalyst for assimilation

Oded Stark and Marcin Jakubek

No 155148, Discussion Papers from University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF)

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: Consumer/Household Economics; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; Labor and Human Capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 23
Date: 2013-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-hrm, nep-lab and nep-mig
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/155148/files/DP182.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Integration as a catalyst for assimilation (2013)
Working Paper: Integration as a catalyst for assimilation (2013)
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:ags:ubzefd:155148

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.155148

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Discussion Papers from University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().