Gender Differences in the Earnings Mobility of Migrants

Abstract

This study analyzes gender differences in the intergenerational earnings mobility of second-generation migrants in Germany. The analysis takes into account potential influences like assortative mating in the form of ethnic marriages and the parental integration measured by parents’ years since migration. First, intergenerational earnings elasticities are estimated at the mean and along the earnings distribution. The results do not reveal large differences in the intergenerational mobility – neither between natives and migrants nor between men and women. Second, intergenerational changes in the relative earnings position are analyzed. The results show that migrants are less likely than natives to worsen their relative earnings position while they have the same probability as natives to improve their earnings position. In summary, migrants are mostly as (im)mobile as the native population.