Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/51970 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 5855
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
The flight and expulsion of Germans from Eastern Europe during and after World War II constitutes one of the largest forced population movements in history. We analyze the economic integration of these forced migrants and their offspring in West Germany. The empirical results suggest that even a quarter of a century after displacement, first generation migrants and native West Germans that were comparable before the war perform strikingly different. Migrants have substantially lower incomes and are less likely to own a house or to be self-employed. Displaced agricultural workers, however, have significantly higher incomes. This income gain can be explained by faster transitions out of low-paid agricultural work. Differences in the labor market performance of second generation migrants resemble those of the first generation. We also find that displacement considerably weakens the intergenerational transmission of human capital between fathers and children, especially at the lower tail of the skill distribution.
Subjects: 
forced migration
economic integration
World War II
West Germany
JEL: 
J61
O15
R23
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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