How integrated are immigrants?

Sandell, Frank Rickard; Contucci, Pierluigi

Publication:
How integrated are immigrants?

dc.affiliation.dpto	UC3M. Departamento de Ciencias Sociales	es
dc.contributor.author	Sandell, Frank Rickard
dc.contributor.author	Contucci, Pierluigi
dc.contributor.funder	Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España)	es
dc.date.accessioned	2022-04-25T17:34:54Z
dc.date.available	2022-04-25T17:34:54Z
dc.date.issued	2015-12-15
dc.description.abstract	BACKGROUND. The successful integration of immigrants is seen as a principal means to secure economic growth and welfare in many countries. Success in this task depends on the capacity to formulate effective integration policies, which in turn is based on research capable of describing and explaining the integration process properly. OBJECTIVE Our objective is to define a conceptual and quantifiable measure of full immigrant integration. This enables a quantitative evaluation of how integrated immigrants are in a specific context in an immigrant - native system - a question poorly addressed by past research. METHODS Our approach consists of looking at the functional dependency of different integration quantifiers on immigrant density. The empirical analysis uses register data from Spain. We focus on social integration and labour market integration in formal employment. RESULTS In our empirical analysis we find dramatic differences in immigrant integration levels across integration contexts. While labour market integration approaches the level of full integration, social integration quickly declines as immigration levels surge. It is shown that these differences are primarily due to the presence of social network effects in the social integration process, absent in the labour market integration process. CONCLUSIONS Proper identification of integration deficits and its causes is likely to improve the efficiency of integration policy making, and the capacity to reach integration targets. Our framework has this quality. The research presented here shows that full labour market integration of immigrants is a realistic target. However, it also shows that, if left unattended, the segregation forces contained in social networks, quite dramatically obstruct the social integration process.	en
dc.description.sponsorship	Pierluigi Contucci acknowledges partial support from FIRB grant RBFR10N90W and from PRIN grant 2010HXAW77. Rickard Sandell acknowledges partial financial suport from the projects “Migration And Care/Domestic Work In Two Institutional Contexts: A Multi-Tier Design 2012–2016”, granted by The Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation (P11- 1111:1), and “Competition Adaptation and Labour-Market Attainment of International Migrants in Europe (CALMA)” granted by the VI National Plan for Scientific Research, Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (CSO2012-38521).	en
dc.identifier.bibliographicCitation	Sandell, R., & Contucci, P. (2015). How integrated are immigrants? Demographic Research, 33, pp. 1271-1280.	es
dc.identifier.doi	https://doi.org/10.4054/DemRes.2015.33.46
dc.identifier.issn	1435-9871
dc.identifier.publicationfirstpage	1271	es
dc.identifier.publicationlastpage	1280	es
dc.identifier.publicationtitle	Demographic Research	es
dc.identifier.publicationvolume	33	es
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10016/34613
dc.identifier.uxxi	AR/0000017541
dc.language.iso	eng	es
dc.publisher	Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research	es
dc.relation.projectID	Gobierno de España. CSO2012-38521
dc.rights	© 2015 Pierluigi Contucci & Rickard Sandell	es
dc.rights	Atribución-NoComercial 3.0 España	*
dc.rights.accessRights	open access	es
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/es/	*
dc.subject.eciencia	Sociología	es
dc.subject.other	Immigration	en
dc.subject.other	Integration	en
dc.subject.other	Intermarriage	en
dc.subject.other	Interpartnership	en
dc.subject.other	Labor market integration	en
dc.subject.other	Social interaction	en
dc.subject.other	Social networks	en
dc.title	How integrated are immigrants?	en
dc.type	research article	*
dc.type.hasVersion	VoR	*
dspace.entity.type	Publication