Ethnic Spatial Dispersion and Immigrant Identity

28 Pages Posted: 11 Jan 2014

See all articles by Amelie F. Constant

Amelie F. Constant

Princeton University; UNU-MERIT; CESifo; University of Pennsylvania

Simone Schüller

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute) - Ifo Institute; Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA); FBK-IRVAPP

Klaus F. Zimmermann

Global Labor Organization (GLO); UNU-MERIT; Maastricht University, Department of Economics; Free University Berlin; University of Bonn; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); Journal of Population Economics

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Abstract

Ethnic groups tend to agglomerate and assemble, mostly in urban areas. While ethnic clustering is critically debated in societies and the consequences for economic outcomes are under debate in research, the process is not yet well understood. A separate literature has also examined the cultural and ethnic identity of immigrants and how these affect their economic performance and societal integration. However, an unexplored channel connects ethnic clustering with ethnic identity formation. Therefore this paper examines the role of ethnic geographic clustering in the sociocultural integration of immigrants. It employs survey data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, combined with disaggregated information at a low geographical level from the unexploited German full census of 1970 and 1987. We employ the exogenous placement of immigrants during their recruitment in the 1960s and 1970s and find that local co-ethnic concentration affects immigrants' cultural integration. Residential ethnic clustering strengthens immigrants' retention of an affiliation with their respective country of origin and weakens identification with the host society. The effects are nonlinear and only become significant at relatively high levels of co-ethnic concentration for the minority identity and at very low levels of local concentration for the majority identity. Our findings are robust to the use of an instrumental variable approach.

Keywords: ethnic minorities, residential segregation, ethnic identity, spatial dispersion, ethnic enclaves

JEL Classification: J15, R23, Z10

Suggested Citation

Constant, Amelie F. and Schüller, Simone and Zimmermann, Klaus F., Ethnic Spatial Dispersion and Immigrant Identity. IZA Discussion Paper No. 7868, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2377604 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2377604

Amelie F. Constant (Contact Author)

Princeton University ( email )

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University of Pennsylvania ( email )

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Simone Schüller

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute) - Ifo Institute ( email )

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Klaus F. Zimmermann

Global Labor Organization (GLO) ( email )

Bonn
Germany

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UNU-MERIT ( email )

Keizer Karelplein 19
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Netherlands

Maastricht University, Department of Economics ( email )

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Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

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Journal of Population Economics

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