Evaluating the effects of immigrant integration policies in Western Europe using a difference-in-differences approach.

In recent years, several European countries have adopted mandatory language and civic education requirements for immigrants with the hope that they will lead to improved integration outcomes. This study evaluates whether these integration requirements have been successful at achieving their intended...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Journal of Ethnic & Migration Studies Vol. 45; no. 15; pp. 2779 - 2801
Autor principal: Neureiter, Michael
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Taylor & Francis Ltd Dec2019
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:In recent years, several European countries have adopted mandatory language and civic education requirements for immigrants with the hope that they will lead to improved integration outcomes. This study evaluates whether these integration requirements have been successful at achieving their intended goals. Analysing immigrants' responses to the European Social Survey (2002–2015) in 15 EU member states via a difference-in-differences approach, I find that mandatory integration requirements have a strong and positive effect on immigrants' level of economic integration, but no impact on their degree of social and political integration. Supplementary evidence, which includes 23 original interviews as well as analyses of country-level data, indicates that the positive effect of mandatory integration requirements on economic integration is due to a true treatment effect rather than a selection effect. Therefore, this study suggests a differential impact of integration policy across different dimensions of immigrant integration, but overall makes a case for the adoption of robust language and civic education requirements for immigrants.