Cultural and economic integration of immigrant minorities: Analytical framework and policy implications

The cultural diversity that new immigrants bring to the host economy is potentially beneficial for the productivity of both immigrants and natives, but immigrants must assimilate to some extent for these benefits to be realized. In general, immigrants assimilate more slowly than natives would like, as they ignore the external material benefits of assimilation for natives and their resistance to foreign cultural influences. We develop a formal framework that highlights the complementarity between immigrants' cultural assimilation, economic integration, and investment in human capital, indicating the scope for mutually beneficial policies, offering immigrants material incentives to assimilate more rapidly.     

Group threat and voter turnout: Evidence from a refugee placement program

We study the impact of refugee inflows on voter turnout in Sweden in a period when shifting immigration patterns made the previously homogeneous country increasingly heterogeneous. Analyzing individual-level panel data and exploiting a national refugee placement program to obtain plausibly exogenous variation in immigration, we find that refugee inflows significantly raise the probability of voter turnout. Balancing tests on initial turnout as well as placebo tests regressing changes in turnout on future refugee inflows support the causal interpretation of our findings. The results are consistent with group-threat theory, which predicts that increased out-group presence spurs political mobilization among in-group members.