Immigrant Assimilation Beyond the Labor Market

Joan Monràs

No 1517, Working Papers from Barcelona School of Economics

Abstract: Immigrants are not just workers, they are also consumers. Yet most of the literature studying immigration has focused on the former. This paper uses detailed Spanish consumption survey data to characterize how immigrant consumption differs from that of natives. Immigrants are much more likely to rent than native households, even when controlling for many observable characteristics. Decompositions of the differences in consumption patterns between immigrants and natives show that most of the differences cannot be accounted for standard socio-economic characteristics like income, household size, and geography. Variation from the amnesty program implemented in Spain in 2005 suggests that a small part of the differences in housing tenure status depend on the fact that many immigrants lack work permits, and potentially, formal access to mortgage credit.

Keywords: amnesty; assimilation; housing markets; Immigrant consumption (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D12 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-lab, nep-mig and nep-ure
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bge:wpaper:1517

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