Immigrants’ time use: a survey of methods and evidence

Abstract

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In transit: The well-being of migrants from transition and post-transition countries

“…While these same issues are also likely to affect migrants from transition economies to the EU, they face far fewer barriers to returning to their home countries to visit than, for example, South-to-North migrants. Finally, time-use data on migrants from Central and Eastern Europe living in the UK and New Jersey demonstrate that immigrant men spent much time working and limited time with their families and immigrant women from Poland spent much time working in low-skilled jobs and less time socializing, leading to isolation (Ribar, 2013). Despite these opposite effects of migration on SWB, it seems that the positive channels dominate in this analysis sample.…”

Considering Cultural Integration in the United States: Empirical Essays on Immigrants' Arts Participation

“…Ribar (2012) shows that immigrants spend less time on leisure activities and more time during an average week working both in the home and in the market than nonimmigrants. Here I use the number of hours worked in an average week as an indicator of available leisure.…”

Children, Kitchen, Church: does ethnicity matter?

“…With the exception of work hours, immigrants' and ethnic minorities' use of time has not been sufficiently studied by economists (Ribar 2013). However, ethnic differences in the allocation of non-market time are important, as they may shed more light on the integration level of ethnic minorities and on the factors that affect both household productivity and ethnic identity.…”

“…According to this model, individuals' time use in different activities is affected by their wage. As immigrants often have lower wages than natives, there are direct implications for ethnic minorities' uses of time: immigrants would face a low price on time-intensive commodities and also, for a given commodity, substitute time for money (Ribar 2013). Kranton (2000, 2010) extend the standard economic models by introducing identity, or a person's sense of self, into his or her utility function.…”

“…The study by Zaiceva and Zimmermann (2011) analyzes the ethnicity gap in multitasking behaviour in UK households and finds that non-white ethnic minorities engage less in simultaneous time use activities than whites, with Pakistani and Bangladeshi men spending the least time on total secondary activities. Ribar (2013) provides an overview of theoretical models of time allocation and their implications for immigrants' behaviour, and reviews the data sources suitable for time use analysis. He also examines studies that used such data to analyze immigrants' behaviour and provides new descriptive evidence using the American Time Use Survey.…”