The social assimilation of immigrants

Although there is some considerable empirical research on the economic assimilation of migrants to the labor markets of the host countries, little or no analysis exists on the social assimilation and integration of migrant workers. This is surprising since the integration of migrants is not only of political importance, but it should strongly interact with their economic behavior. This paper provides an empirical analysis of the determinants of migrants' integration, using data for Germany. Ordered probit models are estimated, where the dependent variable is an ordered response on the feeling of national identity. The results show that personal characteristics, the nationality and the family context affect the migrant's integration, while labor market variables appear to be quite unimportant.