Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/36373 
Year of Publication: 
2009
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 4394
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
While much of the literature on immigrants' assimilation has focused on countries with a large tradition of receiving immigrants and with flexible labor markets, very little is known on how immigrants adjust to other types of host economies. With its severe dual labor market, and an unprecedented immigration boom, Spain presents a perfect natural experiment to analyze immigrations' assimilation process. Using data from the 2000 to 2008 Spanish Labor Force Survey, we find that immigrants are more occupationally mobile than natives, and that much of this greater flexibility is explained by immigrants' assimilation process soon after arrival. However, we find little evidence of convergence, especially among women and high skilled immigrants. This suggests that instead of integrating, immigrants are occupationally segregating, implying that there is both imperfect substitutability and underutilization of immigrants' human capital.
Subjects: 
Immigrants' assimilation effects
cohort effects
occupational distributions and mobility
segmented labor markets
JEL: 
J15
J24
J61
J62
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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