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

Abstract

We study the interplay between host countries’ characteristics and self-selection patterns in relation to refugees’ economic assimilation using a natural experiment in which immigrants from one region migrated to three destinations under similar circumstances. We focus on emigrants fleeing from Argentina and Chile during the military regimes there to the United States, Sweden, and Israel. We find that those refugees show patterns of selection and assimilation similar to those of economic immigrants. Immigrants to the United States and Israel exhibit better selection patterns and consequently faster assimilation than immigrants to Sweden even considering the positive effect of the Swedish market structure.

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 of Asylum Seekers: Evidence From Germany

“…Unlike the determinants of economic migration, the drivers behind who is able to make her way to another country from the main asylum source countries have been rarely explored. The few studies that have focused on the selfselection of individuals in the context of forced migration are either related to past episodes of migration (Birgier et al 2016) or based on data that are imperfectly representative of the origin population (Buber-Ennser et al 2016) or of the asylum population at destination (Lange and Pfeiffer 2018). This study contributes to the literature through the use of individual-level and representative information for both asylum seekers in Germany and the population at origin.…”

“…To date, little is known about the pattern of selection of individuals who left their country of origin to seek asylum abroad. Birgier et al (2016) provided evidence on the selection of political refugees fleeing Argentina and Chile during the military regimes there (1976-1983 and 1973-1985, respectively) to the United States, Sweden, and Israel. They documented that the decision process of these refugees regarding the choice of their destination is similar to those of economic immigrants.…”

Different selection processes, different outcomes? Comparing labor market integration of asylum refugees, resettled refugees and their reunited family members in Finland

“…Barrett and McCarthy 2008). Birgier et al (2016) shows some evidence of negative self-selection of refugees to Sweden as compared to United States and Israel. Authors argue that the results can be explained by the fact that Sweden had least restrictive migration policies, most generous welfare system and the lowest levels of returns to skills.…”