Immigration Policy, Assimilation of Immigrants and Natives' Sentiments towards Immigrants: Evidence from 12 Oecd-countries

As in the U.S. and Canada, migration is a controversial issue in Europe. For much too long, policy concerns are largely driven by political motives. Hence, it is not surprising that migration policies are mainly based on political objectives. This paper argues that this approach has detrimental effects on assimilation and the sentiments of natives. It first reviews the assimilation literature in economics and the policy approaches taken in Europe and among the traditional immigration countries. Second, a new analysis of individual data from the OECD countries studies sentiments concerning immigration and the determinants of these sentiments. The paper concludes with a consistent picture: Governments in Europe should choose migrants more according to the needs of the labor markets. This would moderate social tensions about migration and contribute to a better economic performance of the respective countries. In that, both political and economic objectives of policy-makers would be met.