A social proximity explanation of the reluctance to assimilate

C. Simon Fan and Oded Stark

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: Quite often, migrants appear to exert little effort to absorb the mainstream culture and to learn the language of their host society, even though the economic returns (increased productivity and enhanced earnings) to assimilation are high. We show that when interpersonal comparisons affect individuals’ wellbeing and when a more intensive assimilation results in migrants’ comparing themselves more with the richer natives and less with fellow migrants, then the effort extended to assimilate will be muted.

Keywords: Migrants’ behavior; The effort to assimilate; Income gains; Social proximity; Interpersonal comparisons; Deprivation losses (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 J15 J24 J61 O15 Z10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (47)

Published in Kyklos 1.60(2007): pp. 55-63

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Related works:
Journal Article: A Social Proximity Explanation of the Reluctance to Assimilate (2007)
Working Paper: A Reluctance to Assimilate (2006)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:30940

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