Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/35631 
Year of Publication: 
2009
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 4275
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Upon arrival in the host country, immigrants undergo a fundamental identity crisis. Their ethnic identity being questioned, they can be classified into four states assimilation, integration, separation and marginalization. This is suggested by the ethnosizer, a newly established measure to parameterize a person's ethnic identity, using individual information on language, culture, societal interaction, history of migration, and ethnic self-identification. In what state individuals end up varies among immigrants even from the same country. Moreover, the quest for ethnic identity affects women and men differentially. This paper contends that ethnic identity can significantly affect the attachment to and performance of immigrants in the host country labor market, beyond human capital and ethnic origin characteristics. Empirical estimates for immigrants in Germany show that ethnic identity is important for the decision to work and significantly and differentially affects the labor force participation of men and women. Women who exhibit the integrated identity are more likely to work than women who are German assimilated; this does not hold for men. However, once we control for selection in the labor market and a slew of individual and labor market characteristics, ethnic identity does not significantly affect the earnings of men or women immigrant workers.
Subjects: 
Ethnosizer
ethnicity
ethnic identity
immigrant assimilation
integration
ethnic earnings
JEL: 
F22
J15
J16
Z10
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
118.55 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.