Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/93324 
Year of Publication: 
2014
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 7924
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We examine the consequences, of integrating large minorities into productivity-relevant majority ethno-linguistic norms, for distribution, ethnic conflict and crime. We develop a two-community model where such assimilation generates social gains by: (a) facilitating economic interaction, and (b) dampening religious or racial conflict over symbolic and normative contents of the public sphere. However, integration shifts the distribution of both material and symbolic goods against the minority. It also expands income inequality within the minority community. This incentivizes decentralized attempts to expropriate producers which, through cumulative causation, both immiserize and criminalize the minority. An underclass thus results, with disproportionate minority presence.
Subjects: 
minority
identity
language
assimilation
discrimination
ethnic conflict
crime
welfare dependency
JEL: 
D74
J15
J71
O15
Z13
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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