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

doi:10.3386/w33558

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

Working Paper 33558

DOI 10.3386/w33558

Issue Date March 2025

We estimate intergenerational mobility of immigrants and their children in fifteen receiving countries. We document large income gaps for first-generation immigrants that diminish in the second generation. Around half of the second-generation gap can be explained by differences in parental income, with the remainder due to differential rates of absolute mobility. The daughters of immigrants enjoy higher absolute mobility than daughters of locals in most destinations, while immigrant sons primarily enjoy this advantage in countries with long histories of immigration. Cross-country differences in absolute mobility are not driven by parental country-of-origin, but instead by destination labor markets and immigration policy.

Jensen thanks the ROCKWOOL Foundation for funding. Manning thanks the ERC under grant LPIGMANN 834455. Connolly acknowledges funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (435-2019-1097) and Fonds de recherche du Québec - Société et culture (2020-0EXR-282263). Govind, Rapoport and Sirugue acknowledge that this work has been funded by public grants overseen by the French National Research Agency as part of the “Investissements d’avenir” program (references ANR-17-EURE-001 and ANR-10-EQPX-17 - Centre d’accès sécurisé aux données - CASD), and the French Collaborative Institute on Migration coordinated by the CNRS (reference ANR-17-CONV-0001). Hangartner and Siegenthaler acknowledge Swiss National Science Foundation, grant no. 51NF40-205605 “NCCR on the move”. Karmel appreciates support from the Scholarship from the Sir Roland Wilson Foundation as part of a partnership between the Australian Public Service and the Australian National University. Landaud and Salvanes acknowledge Research council of Norway project number 262675 and 275274. Martínez acknowledges the Swiss National Science Foundation, grant no. 212814 “Intergenerational Mobility: Multi-Dimensional Patterns, Determinants, and Effects on Beliefs”. Stuhler acknowledges Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, grants RYC2019-027614-I and CEX2021-001181-M. Adermon and Roman acknowledge Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (Forte), grant number 2024-00335. Åslund acknowledges Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (Forte), grants number 2021–01570 and 2024-00335. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Panu Poutvaara
Poutvaara is member of The Expert Council on Integration and Migration and has received, in the last three years, compensation in excess of ten thousand US dollars for this work. The Expert Council on Integration and Migration is an independent body in Germany that provides research-based policy advice to policymakers and the general public. The Council Members (nine professors representing various disciplines) are appointed for a three-year term by the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community. Poutvaara coauthored this research paper unrelated to his activities as a member of The Expert Council.

Tom Zohar
We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Maria de Maeztu Unit of Excellence CEMFI CEX2020-001104-M funded by MICIU/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033, Grant PID2021-128992NB-I00 funded by MICIU/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 and by ERDF/EU, Grant PID2022-143184NA-I00 funded by MICIU/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 and by ERDF/EU, and Grant RYC2022-037963-I funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by ESF +.
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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, and Tom Zohar, "Intergenerational Mobility of Immigrants in 15 Destination Countries," NBER Working Paper 33558 (2025), https://doi.org/10.3386/w33558.

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Intergenerational Mobility of Immigrants in 15 Destination Countries

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