Assimilating Immigrants: The Impact of an Integration Program

Matti Sarvimäki () and Kari Hämäläinen ()
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Kari Hämäläinen: Government Institute for Economic Research

No 2011015, Norface Discussion Paper Series from Norface Research Programme on Migration, Department of Economics, University College London

Abstract: Immigration policy design is an important and controversial topic in most developed countries. We inform this debate by evaluating the effects of an integration program for immigrants to Finland. The program consists of an individualized sequence of training and subsidized employment. Non-compliance is sanctioned by reductions in welfare benefits. Our empirical strategy exploits a discontinuity that made participation obligatory in May 1999 only for those who had entered the population register after May 1997. The results suggest that the program strongly increased the employment and earnings of immigrants and reduced their dependency on social benefits.

Keywords: Immigrants; assimilation; integration programs; regression-discontinuity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H53 I38 J61 J68 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab and nep-mig
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Assimilating Immigrants: The Impact of an Integration Program (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nor:wpaper:2011015

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