Immigration Policy, Assimilation of Immigrants and Natives' Sentiments Towards Immigrants: Evidence from 12 Oecd-Countries

47 Pages Posted: 29 Nov 2000 Last revised: 16 Apr 2023

See all articles by Klaus F. Zimmermann

Klaus F. Zimmermann

Global Labor Organization (GLO); UNU-MERIT; Maastricht University, Department of Economics; Free University Berlin; University of Bonn; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); Journal of Population Economics

Thomas K. Bauer

Rhine-Westphalia Institute for Economic Research (RWI-Essen); University of Bochum - Faculty of Economics; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Magnus Lofstrom

Public Policy Institute of California; Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Abstract

As in the U.S. and Canada, migration is a controversial issue in Europe. This paper explores the possibility that immigration policy may affect the labor market assimilation of immigrants and hence natives’ sentiments towards immigrants. It first reviews the assimilation literature in economics and the policy approaches taken in Europe and among the traditional immigration countries. Second, a new analysis of individual data from the OECD countries studies sentiments concerning immigration and the determinants of these sentiments is presented. Natives in countries that receive predominantly refugee migrants are relatively more concerned with immigrations impact on social issues such as crime than on the employment effects. Natives in countries with mostly economic migrants are relatively more concerned about loosing jobs to immigrants. However, the results also suggest that natives may view immigration more favorably if immigrants are selected according to the needs of the labor markets. Possible benefits of such a policy are that it may moderate social tensions in regards to migration and contribute to a better economic performance of the respective countries.

Keywords: sentiments towards migrants, Assimilation of migrants, European migration policies

JEL Classification: J61, F22

Suggested Citation

Zimmermann, Klaus F. and Bauer, Thomas K. and Lofstrom, Magnus, Immigration Policy, Assimilation of Immigrants and Natives' Sentiments Towards Immigrants: Evidence from 12 Oecd-Countries. IZA Discussion Paper No. 187, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=251988 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.251988

Klaus F. Zimmermann (Contact Author)

Global Labor Organization (GLO) ( email )

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