This paper develops a framework for estimating previous illegal experience among annual cohorts of new legal immigrants to the United States - using public-use administrative microdata alone, survey data alone, and the two jointly - and provides estimates for the FY 1996 cohort of new...

Quite often, migrants appear to exert little effort to absorb the mainstream culture and to learn the language of their host society, even though the economic returns (increased productivity and enhanced earnings) to assimilation are high. We show that when interpersonal comparisons affect...

We draw a distinction between the social integration and economic assimilation of migrants, and study an interaction between the two. We define social integration as blending into the host countryś society, and economic assimilation as acquisition of human capital that is specific to the host...

Strong ties with the home country and with the host country can coexist. An altruistic migrant who sends remittances to his family back home assimilates more the more altruistic he is, and also more than a non-remitting migrant. -- Assimilation of migrants ; Acculturation identity ; Links with...

We present a theory that systematically and causally links the well-being of native inhabitants with variation in the extent of the assimilation of migrants. Recent empirical findings are yielded as predictions of the theory.