Doctoral Dissertation Research: Integration Policies and Immigrants' Economic Incorporation

Stanford University, Stanford CA

Investigators

Abstract

Prior research on immigrants' economic assimilation focused either on the effects of individual attributes or on the effects of the economic and social structure on immigrants' outcomes. In the current research I combine insights from both schools of thought in analyzing earnings assimilation. Specifically, I will test predictions from the forms of capital model and the context of reception approach using multilevel modeling techniques. This will allow me to address the individual and contextual determinants of economic outcomes using a single model and to examine whether theories focusing on one of these two dimensions offer competing or complementary explanations of the dynamics of assimilation. In addition, I will improve on earlier work by simultaneously analyzing the effects of ethnic group characteristics on group means of initial earnings and group means of earnings growth while controlling for individual human capital and demographic attributes. This will enable me to examine whether the same factors shape initial earnings and earnings growth across ethnic groups and to identify which groups have unfavorable assimilation prospects. Finally, using data from the 2000 U.S. Census and the 2001 Census of Canada, I will compare immigrant assimilation patterns in two countries with similar labor market institutions and economic polices but with markedly different integration policies. This will test whether group-level effects on earnings assimilation are dependent on host country institutional characteristics. Broader impact. The focus on immigrants' group characteristics and host country attributes that facilitate assimilation can help in shaping immigration and integration policies that assist in the incorporation of immigrants into receiving economies. By assisting the process of immigrants' assimilation, such research can help improve the well-being of immigrants and increase the benefits of immigration to receiving communities.