Research
Work in Progress
by Damm, Anna P., Ahmad Hassani, Trine S. H. Jensen, Mathias Schindler and Marie L. Schultz-Nielsen, (2023)
Abstract:
This paper investigates how new migrants allocate their time between formal investment in host-country language and work. Theoretical predictions follow from the dynamic human capital model. The empirical analysis covers refugee immigrants to Denmark with temporary residency who are offered host-country language courses during the first three years after arrival. Participation gives eligibility to means-tested social assistance and having passed a language test is a condition for obtaining permanent residency. Our descriptive analysis of individual outcomes during the first four years since arrival shows high course take-up, and the fastest language course progression within the first two years of arrival. Moreover, we find initially low but increasing employment rate by years since arrival, with the highest increase between year one and two, followed by year two and three, and increasing average annual labour income by years since arrival, especially between year one and two. Our findings are in line with the dynamic human capital model.
by Damm, Anna P., Ahmad Hassani, Trine H. S. Jensen, Marie L. Schultz-Nielsen, (2023).
Abstract:
Economic theory predicts that a common language and culture facilitate social interaction. The value of assimilation is larger for an individual from a small minority than for one from a large minority. The theory is tested and confirmed by exploiting a natural experiment in Denmark between 2004 and 2015,when refugee immigrants were assigned to neighborhoods quasi-randomly and language training was a condition for receiving social assistance. The assigned share of co-language neighbors reduces the probability of having completed a language course four years since arrival, irrespective of gender and skills. While the share of neighbors who speak their native tongue has little impact on the economic success of men, it increases women’s fertility and reduces their employment probability, earnings, and likelihood of working in communication-intensive jobs. Moreover, while favorable local labor market conditions improve individual labormarket outcomes, they slow down the language course progression of men. Our results have important implications for immigration and integration policies.
“Effects of Co-Ethnic Neighbors on Schooling of Immigrant Children”
by Damm, Anna P., Ahmad Hassani, Camilla Hedegaard Hansen, Trine H. S. Jensen, Marie L. Schultz-Nielsen.
Abstract:
We examine to what extent immigrant school performance is affected by living close to ethnic peers. The Danish Dispersal Policy on refugees 1999-2016 provides exogenous variation in the place of settlement of the immigrant families. Our use of Danish administrative register data allows us to perfectly identify the population of children of refuges subject to spatial dispersal. For this population, we estimate intention-to-treat effects of the size and quality of the co-ethnic network in the assigned neighborhood, on take-up of the compulsory school exit exam, exam grades and upper-secondary enrollment. The main result is that the size and the employment rate of the co-ethnic network increases the probability of attending the exam and the probability of attending the full final exam. A standard deviation increase in the share of co-ethnic neighbors raise the share of children participating in the full final exam with 35 percent. A standard deviation increase in the employment rate of co-ethnic neighbors raises increases the share of children participating in the full final exam with 0.1%. The positive effect is only significant for children arriving after school starting age. The positive effect is primarily driven of children arriving after the age of school start. Our results lend support to the theory that established co-ethnic networks facilitate integration of children.
“Restricted Settlement and Refugee Employment: A Study of Denmark's Asylum Policy”
by Jensen, Trine S. H. (2023)
Abstract:
I estimate the effect of restricted initial settlement on the employment rate of refugees in Denmark by exploiting a regression discontinuity design: Municipality quotas for refugees are fixed for a year at a time. At the beginning of each calendar year, refugees granted asylum can choose the municipality of residence freely while refugees granted asylum at the end of a calendar year will be restricted in their location choices. Using the Danish longitudinal register data, I link asylum receivers to their first address and their individual labor market outcomes in years after asylum. I show that restricting initial settlement choice results in permanently lower employment rates for refugees with above 10 years of education in all years across the first 10 years after asylum by. The effects for refugees with below 10 years of education are dynamic. Three years after asylum, the employment rate is lower for refugees granted asylum at the end of the calendar year. In comparison, six years after asylum, the employment rate is higher for refugees granted asylum at the end of the calendar year. The effects cannot be explained purely by the quality of the municipality of choice, as the effects persist with municipality fixed effects.