Discussion paper

DP20003 Intergenerational mobility of immigrants in 15 destination countries

Leah Boustan Mathias Fjællegaard Jensen Ran Abramitzky Elisa Jácome Alan Manning Santiago Pérez Analysia Watley Adrian Adermon Jaime Arellano-Bover Olof Åslund Marie Connolly Nathan Deutscher Anne C. Gielen Yvonne Giesing Yajna Govind Martin Halla Dominik Hangartner Yuyan Jiang Cecilia Karmel Fanny Landaud Lindsey Macmillan Isabel Z. Martínez Alberto Polo Panu Poutvaara Hillel Rapoport Sara Roman Kjell G Salvanes Shmuel San Michael Siegenthaler Louis Sirugue Javier Soria Espín Jan Stuhler Giovanni L. Violante Dinand Webbink Andrea Weber Jonathan Zhang Angela Zheng Tom Zohar

6 Mar 2025

We estimate intergenerational mobility of children of immigrants in fifteen receiving countries. Children of immigrants have somewhat lower income than children of local-born parents. Around half of this gap can be explained by differences in parental income, with the remainder due to differences in mobility parameters. The daughters of immigrants enjoy higher absolute mobility than daughters of locals in most destinations. Absolute mobility of sons of immigrants is higher outside Europe and lower in Europe compared to sons of locals. Cross-country differences in absolute mobility are not driven by parental country-of-origin, but instead by destination labor markets and immigration policy.

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Citation

Boustan, L, M Jensen, R Abramitzky, E Jácome, A Manning, S Pérez, A Watley, A Adermon, J Arellano-Bover, O Åslund, M Connolly, N Deutscher, A Gielen, Y Giesing, Y Govind, M Halla, D Hangartner, Y Jiang, C Karmel, F Landaud, L Macmillan, I Martínez, A Polo, P Poutvaara, H Rapoport, S Roman, K Salvanes, S San, M Siegenthaler, L Sirugue, J Soria Espín, J Stuhler, G Violante, D Webbink, A Weber, J Zhang, A Zheng and T Zohar (2025), ‘DP20003 Intergenerational mobility of immigrants in 15 destination countries‘, CEPR Discussion Paper No. 20003. CEPR Press, Paris & London. https://cepr.org/publications/dp20003