Age at Migration and Social Integration

39 Pages Posted: 21 Jul 2009

See all articles by Olof Aslund

Olof Aslund

IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Anders Bohlmark

Stockholm University

Oskar Nordstrom Skans

Uppsala University; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Abstract

The paper studies childhood migrants and examines how age at migration affects their ensuing integration at the residential market, the labor market, and the marriage market. We use population-wide Swedish data and compare outcomes as adults among siblings arriving at different ages in order to ensure that the results can be given a causal interpretation. The results show that the children who arrived at a higher age had substantially lower shares of natives among their neighbors, coworkers and spouses as adults. The effects are mostly driven by higher exposure to immigrants of similar ethnic origin, in particular at the marriage market. We also find some effects on educational attainment, employment rates and wages, although these effects are much more limited in magnitude. We also analyze children of migrants and show that parents' time in the host country before child birth matters, which implies that the outcomes of the social integration process are inherited. Inherited integration has a particularly strong impact on the marriage patterns of females.

Keywords: immigration, integration, segregation, age at migration, siblings

JEL Classification: J12, J15, J13, J01

Suggested Citation

Aslund, Olof and Bohlmark, Anders and Nordström Skans, Oskar, Age at Migration and Social Integration. IZA Discussion Paper No. 4263, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1434577 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1434577

Olof Aslund (Contact Author)

IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation ( email )

Box 513
751 20 Uppsala
Sweden
+46 18 471 70 89 (Phone)

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Anders Bohlmark

Stockholm University ( email )

Universitetsvägen 10
Stockholm, Stockholm SE-106 91
Sweden

Oskar Nordström Skans

Uppsala University ( email )

Box 513
Uppsala, 751 20
Sweden

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

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