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Assimilation, labour market experience, and earnings profiles of temporary and permanent immigrant workers in germany

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  • Licht, Georg
  • Steiner, Viktor

Abstract

We test the assimilation hypothesis as initially proposed by Chiswick (1978) by making. use of a rich panel dataset for Germany which allows us to control for unobserved population heterogeneity and potential selectivity bias arising from an individual's re-migration decision and employment behaviour. To take into account the institutional aspects of the German guest-worker system we use information on an immigrant's expected duration of stay in Germany to distinguish between temporary and permanent migrants and to test for differences in earnings/experience profiles with respect to a foreigner's expected duration of stay. We find that years of schooling in Germany have a strong positive effect on earnings, that earnings/experience profiles of guest-workers differ by expected duration of stay, and that the renumeration of labour market experience in Germany is higher for natives than for most foreigners. The assimilation hypothesis is therefore not supported by the evidence for Germany.

Suggested Citation

  • Licht, Georg & Steiner, Viktor, 1993. "Assimilation, labour market experience, and earnings profiles of temporary and permanent immigrant workers in germany," ZEW Discussion Papers 93-06, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:zewdip:9306
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Thomas Bauer, 1998. "Do Immigrants Reduce Natives' Wages? Evidence from Germany," Departmental Working Papers 199802, Rutgers University, Department of Economics.
    2. Algan, Yann & Dustmann, Christian & Glitz, Albrecht & Manning, Alan, 2009. "The Economic Situation of First- and Second-Generation Immigrants in France, Germany, and the UK," IZA Discussion Papers 4514, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Sebastian Gundel & Heiko Peters, "undated". "Assimilation and Cohort Effects for German Immigrants," Working Papers 200123, Institute of Spatial and Housing Economics, Munster Universitary.
    4. Stephan O. Hornig & Horst Rottmann & Rüdiger Wapler, 2009. "Information Asymmetry, Education Signals and the Case of Ethnic and Native Germans," CESifo Working Paper Series 2683, CESifo.
    5. Yann Algan & Christian Dustmann & Albrecht Glitz & Alan Manning, 2010. "The Economic Situation of First and Second-Generation Immigrants in France, Germany and the United Kingdom," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 120(542), pages 4-30, February.
    6. Steiner, Viktor & Wagner, Kersten, 1996. "Has earnings inequality in Germany changed in the 1980's?," ZEW Discussion Papers 96-32, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    7. Aldashev, Alisher & Gernandt, Johannes & Thomsen, Stephan L., 2007. "Earnings Prospects for People with Migration Background in Germany," ZEW Discussion Papers 07-031, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    8. Oser, Ursula, 1995. "Remittances of guest workers to their home countries: An econometric analysis," Discussion Papers 25, University of Konstanz, Center for International Labor Economics (CILE).
    9. Nerlinger, Eric A., 1996. "Firm formation in high-tech industries: empirical results for Germany," ZEW Discussion Papers 96-07, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    10. Michael Fertig & Stefanie Schurer, 2007. "Earnings Assimilation of Immigrants in Germany: The Importance of Heterogeneity and Attrition Bias," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 30, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    11. Amelie Constant & Douglas S. Massey, 2003. "Self-selection, earnings, and out-migration: A longitudinal study of immigrants to Germany," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 16(4), pages 631-653, November.
    12. Steiner, Viktor & Velling, Johannes, 1992. "Re-migration behaviour and expected duration of stay of guest-workers in Germany," ZEW Discussion Papers 92-14, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    13. Velling, Johannes, 1995. "Wage discrimination and occupational segregation of foreign male workers in Germany," ZEW Discussion Papers 95-04, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    14. Anees, Muhammad & Sajjad, Muhammad & Ahmed, Ishfaq, 2011. "A counterfactual decomposition analysis of immigrants-natives earnings in Malaysia," Economics Discussion Papers 2011-51, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    15. Bauer, Thomas K. & Lofstrom, Magnus & Zimmermann, Klaus F., 2000. "Immigration Policy, Assimilation of Immigrants and Natives' Sentiments towards Immigrants: Evidence from 12 OECD-Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 187, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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