Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/80342 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Series/Report no.: 
University of Tübingen Working Papers in Economics and Finance No. 59
Publisher: 
University of Tübingen, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, Tübingen
Abstract: 
We draw a distinction between the social integration and economic assimilation of migrants, and study an interaction between the two. We define social integration as blending into the host country's society, and economic assimilation as acquisition of human capital that is specific to the host country's labor market. We show that a non-integrated migrant finds it optimal to acquire a relatively limited quantity of human capital; with fellow migrants constituting his only comparison group, a non-integrated migrant does not have a relative deprivation-based incentive to close the income gap with the natives. However, when a migrant is made to integrate, his social proximity to the natives exposes him to relative deprivation, which in turn prompts him to form more destination-specific human capital in order to increase his earnings and narrow the income gap with the natives. In this way, social integration becomes a catalyst for economic assimilation.
Subjects: 
Assimilation
Social proximity
Interpersonal comparisons
Relative deprivation
Human capital formation
JEL: 
D01
F22
J15
J24
J61
O15
Z10
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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