Abstract:
This study examines the effect of introducing the birthplace principle for children of foreigners on the integration behavior of migrant families in Germany. Using the reform of the German citizenship law in 1999 and data from the German Microcensus, I exploit the discrimination of different birth-year cohorts around the enactment date to apply a regression discontinuity design for the analysis. The results suggest that granting citizenship to immigrant children reduces their parents’ willingness to apply for naturalization for themselves. With respect to labor market integration, there seems to be no effect on the mothers, but an increase in the fathers’ propensity to receive welfare benefits.
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