Self-Selection and Economic Assimilation of Immigrants: The Case of Iranian Immigrants Arriving to Three Countries during 1979–1985

Abstract

The study is designed to evaluate the impact of the interaction between patterns of immigrants' self‐selection and the context of reception at destinations on economic assimilation of Iranian immigrants who came to three countries during 1979–1985. For that purpose, we studied immigrants at the age of 22 or higher upon arrival by utilizing the 5 percent 1990 and 2000 Public Use Microdata files (PUMS) of the United States census, the 20 percent demographic samples of the 1983 and 1995 Israeli censuses of population, and the 1990 and 2000 Swedish registers. The results indicate that the “most qualified” immigrants – both on observed and unobserved variables – who left Iran right after the Islamic revolution, arrived in the US Their positive self‐selection led them to reach complete earnings assimilation with natives there. Iranian immigrants who arrived in Israel and Sweden did not achieve full earnings assimilation with natives. Of these two groups, a smaller immigrant‐to‐native gap in average earnings was found in Sweden, but in the same time Iranian immigrants in Israel were more positively self‐selected and showed better assimilation than their counterparts in Sweden. Market structure played a certain role in immigrants' earnings assimilation mainly in Sweden.

Time and Generation: Parents’ Integration and Children’s School Performance in Sweden, 1989–2011

“…Also, Iranian second-generation children have grade point averages roughly on par with native Swedes. This is possibly the result of a positive selection among Iranian immigrants to Sweden, who arrived with higher levels of education than other refugees (Haberfeld and Lundh 2014; Aradhya et al 2016). Second-generation Iranian children also seem unlikely to be at risk of downward assimilation despite the absence of a relationship between parents’ years since migration and children’s grade performance.…”

“…Among these groups, the hypothesized effects of assimilation are not found and perhaps indicate a process of stagnation or downward assimilation. The children of Iranian immigrants, however, might be a special case due to higher general academic performance than other groups (Haberfeld and Lundh 2014; Aradhya et al 2016). Compared to Iranian migrants, Iraqi immigrants arrived with lower levels of human capital and have experienced limited upward social mobility (Bevelander 1999, 2011).…”

Migration across developed countries: German immigrants in Sweden and the US

“…Its design builds on looking at immigrants originated from one country (Germany), during the same period (1990 – 2000) to two different destination countries (Sweden and the US). Such a design allows us to examine the consequences of immigrants' self‐sorting patterns on the economic assimilation among relatively highly skilled immigrants (Cohen and Haberfeld, 2007; Cohen, Haberfeld and Kogan, 2011; Haberfeld and Lundh, 2014; Birgier et al, 2016; Lewin‐Epstein et al, 2003), and to better assess the contribution of the highly developed destination countries' attributes both to patterns of self‐sorting and economic assimilation of well‐trained and highly skilled immigrants.…”

Self-Selection and Host Country Context in the Economic Assimilation of Political Refugees in the United States, Sweden, and Israel

“…Immigrants’ self-selection patterns comprise both observed characteristics (e.g., education level, occupation, age, and marital status) and unobserved characteristics (e.g., motivation and risk taking). Positive self-selection regarding both observed and unobserved attributes enhances migrants’ ability to assimilate economically into the host country (e.g., Borjas 1987, 1990; Smith and Edmonston 1997; Haberfeld and Lundh 2014).…”

“…The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the joint effect on the economic assimilation of political refugees of self-selection patterns and the host country’s characteristics. Accordingly, we use what has previously been described as a “natural experiment” (Cohen and Haberfeld 2007; Haberfeld and Lundh 2014): looking at migrants who originated from one region, during the same period of time and under similar circumstances, and moved to three different destination countries. 4 We focus on emigrants who left Argentina (1976–1983) and Chile (1973–1985) during the military regime and immigrated to the United States, Sweden, and Israel.…”