Dear colleagues,
The Department of Economics cordially invites you to the WU Economic Research Seminar on
Wednesday, June 9th, with
Helmut Rainer
(LMU)
on
“Caught between Cultures: Unintended Consequences of Improving Opportunity for Immigrant Girls”
Abstract: What happens when immigrant girls are given increased opportunities to integrate into the workplace and society, but their
parents value more traditional cultural outcomes? We answer this question in the context of a reform which granted automatic birthright citizenship to eligible immigrant children born in Germany after January 1, 2000. Using survey data we collected from students
in 57 schools and comparing those born in the months before versus after the reform, we find the introduction of birthright citizenship lowers measures of life satisfaction and self-esteem for immigrant girls by .32 and .25 standard deviations, respectively.
This is especially true for Muslims, where parents are likely to prefer more traditional cultural outcomes than their daughters. Moreover, we find that Muslim girls granted birthright citizenship are less integrated into German society: they are both more
socially isolated and less likely to self-identify as German. Exploring mechanisms for these unintended drops in well-being and assimilation, we find that immigrant Muslim parents invest less in their daughters’ schooling and that these daughters receive worse
grades in school if they are born after the reform. Parents are also less likely to speak German with these daughters. Consistent with a rise in intrafamily conflict, birthright citizenship results in disillusionment where immigrant Muslim girls believe their
chances of achieving their educational goals are lower and the perceived odds of having to forgo a career for a family rise. In contrast, immigrant boys experience, if anything, an improvement in well-being, integration, and schooling outcomes. Taken together,
the findings point towards immigrant girls being pushed by parents to conform to a role within traditional culture, whereas boys are allowed to take advantage of the opportunities that come with citizenship. To explain these findings, we construct a simple
game-theoretic model which builds on Akerlof and Kranton (2000), where identity-concerned parents constrain their daughter’s choices, and hence lower their daughter’s well-being, when faced with the threat of integration. Alternative models can explain some
of the findings in isolation.
Date: Wednesday,
June 9th
Time:
4.30 to 6 pm (CET)
Location: Zoom. You can access starting from
4.30
pm using this
link.
With best regards,
Harald Oberhofer
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Univ.-Prof. Dr. Harald Oberhofer
Institute for International Economics
WU Vienna University of Economics and Business
Phone: +43/1/31336-4984
Fax: +43/1/31336-4984
Email:
harald.oberhofer@wu.ac.at
Webpage:
https://www.wu.ac.at/ie/mitarbeiter/harald-oberhofer/
Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO)
Phone: +43/1/7982601-468
Fax: +43/1/7989386
Email:
harald.oberhofer@wifo.ac.at
Webpage:
http://www.wifo.ac.at/harald_oberhofer