Topic 4: Employment

Group assimilation of immigrants

Khansa Al-Sabah, City University London

The immigration literature generally concludes that the assimilation of immigrants mainly depends on individual characteristics of the person. Following Hatton and Leigh (2009), we study whether immigrants assimilate as communities, not only as individuals.  Using the 1981, 1991, 2001 and 2006 Canadian census data, the relationship between the assimilation of immigrants and the past stock of given ethnic origin groups is studied. Alongside the past stock, other group-level variables are used. The results suggest that a large number of immigrants from a given origin group depresses the relative hours worked whilst a history of past immigration raises relative hourly wages. Thus, the history of the individual’s ethnic group in the host country matters in the assimilation process. In addition, the years since migration of a given origin group raises both the relative annual earnings and hourly wages.

JEL classification: F22, J15, J61, J24

Keywords: Immigration, assimilation, ethnic origin, Canadian Labour Market

 

 

Are Natives Displaced By Immigrants in a Developing Country? Evidence from Skill-
Cell Approach

Esra Karapinar Kocag, University of Reading

This paper investigates whether immigrants in a developing country cause to decrease employment rates of natives, or in other words, they are substitutes or complements for each other. We implement skill cell approach by following Borjas (2003)’s study since it allows to see the impact on competitors which refer the people with the same level of education and experience. Using the population census data for the years 1990 and 2000, we find a negative association between the share of immigrants and natives’ employment rate at district and regional levels; however, there is no statistically significant impact at national level. Results are consistent with IV estimation at district level. This paper contributes to very small literature of immigration analysis in Turkey. The results provide evidence that immigrants and Turks are competing in Turkish labour market.

Keywords: immigration, natives’ employment, skill-cell approach