Does growing up in an ethnic enclave slow down the adoption of natives' cultural behaviour?​

Does growing up in an ethnic enclave slow down the adoption of natives' cultural behaviour by immigrants? To measure cultural behaviour, I use administrative data on usage of contraceptives by women aged 15 to 20. To observe exogenous variation in the ethnic concentration of (close) neighbourhoods, I rely on the random allocation of asylum seekers to government run accommodation in the Netherlands during the period 1996 to 2012. Although behaviours do converge with time, neighbourhood ethnic composition has no effect on this process.

This paper was presented at EALE (Uppsala), SOLE (Arlington), RES (Warwick), SMYE (Brussels), Winter Meetings of the E.S. (Rotterdam), EUI Applied Micro Seminar and Tilburg Economics Workshop.  This paper is scheduled for presentation at the IZA Annual Migration Meeting (Bonn).

​The Intergenerational (Im)mobility of Immigrants

This paper studies the influence of pre-migration social background on the long-term economic assimilation of immigrants. I use unique French survey data to trace family histories over three generations, in both the origin and destination countries, before and after migration. While many immigrants experience an occupational downgrading at migration, their children strongly benefit from the high socio-economic status their family had in the origin country. As a result, characteristics of immigrant grandparents are more predictive of grandchildren's achievements than are characteristics of native grandparents. These findings are consistent with a model where immigrants cannot fully transfer their human capital between labour markets but transmit it across generations.
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This paper was presented at EALE (Lyon), RES (Bristol), IZA Summer School, Macroeconomics Lunch Seminar (Louvain), OECD-CEPII Annual Conference (Paris), ESPE (Antwerpen), AIEL (Trento) and EUI Applied Micro Seminar. 

Who influences young immigrants? with Eva Johansen (Aarhus University)

Is teenagers decision to use contraceptives influenced by peers? To identify peer effects, we rely on cross-cohort variation in students usage in Danish high-schools. To address the reflection problem, we focus on the influence of older cohorts on younger ones. Contraception not being prevalent among young women with a non-Western background, its usage is a good measure of cultural adaptation. Looking at the effect of different peers group is indicative of which is influential. Immigrant teenagers adapt their behaviours to what other immigrants (but not what other natives) do. Their probability of using contraceptives and of having an abortion becomes lower, but not their likelihood of being treated for chlamydia.

This paper was presented at the EUI Applied Micro Seminar and is scheduled for presentation at RES (Belfast) and EALE/SOLE (Berlin). 

Stranger Danger: Parental Attitudes, Child Development and the Fear of Kidnaping with Agnès Charpin (EUI)

This paper was presented at the EUI Applied Micro Seminar and is scheduled for presentation at the SMYE (Bologna) ​

Work in Progress:

The presence of ethnic minorities and voting in the Netherlands with Sigrid Suetens (Tilburg) 

Work flexibility, parent’s careers and children outcomes with Michèle Bélot (EUI) and Arnaud Chevalier (RHUL)
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