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dc.titleCitizenship and the Economic Assimilation of Canadian Immigrants
dc.contributor.authorZanoni, Wladimir
dc.contributor.authorHe, Ailin
dc.contributor.orgunitOffice of Strategic Planning and Development Effectiveness
dc.coverageCanada
dc.coverageNorth America
dc.date.available2021-03-19T00:00:00
dc.date.issue2021-03-19T00:00:00
dc.description.abstractIn this paper, we examine whether acquiring citizenship improves the economic assimilation of Canadian migrants. We took advantage of a natural experiment made possible through changes in the Canadian Citizenship Act of 2014, which extended the physical presence requirement for citizenship from three to four years. Using quasi-experimental methods, we found that delaying citizenship eligibility by one year adversely affected Canadian residents' wages. Access to better jobs explains a citizenship premium of 11 percent in higher wages among naturalized migrants. Our estimates are robust to model specifications, differing sampling windows to form the treatment and comparison groups, and whether the estimator is a non-parametric rather than a parametric one. We discuss how our findings are relevant to the optimal design of naturalization policies regarding efficiency and equity.
dc.format.extent53
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.18235/0003117
dc.identifier.urlhttps://publications.iadb.org/publications/english/document/Citizenship-and-the-Economic-Assimilation-of-Canadian-Immigrants.pdf
dc.language.isoen
dc.mediumAdobe PDF
dc.publisherInter-American Development Bank
dc.subjectLabor Supply
dc.subjectLabor Market
dc.subjectWage
dc.subject.jelcodeE24 - Employment • Unemployment • Wages • Intergenerational Income Distribution • Aggregate Human Capital • Aggregate Labor Productivity
dc.subject.jelcodeK37 - Immigration Law
dc.subject.jelcodeJ61 - Geographic Labor Mobility • Immigrant Workers
dc.subject.keywordsLabor Supply;Citizenship premium
dc.typeWorking Papers
idb.identifier.pubnumberIDB-WP-01127
idb.operationBK-C2031
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