Genetic distance, immigrants' identity, and labor market outcomes

Consistent estimates of the effect of immigrants identity on labor market outcomes is complicated by the endogenous relationship between performance on the labor market and attitudes towards ethnic identity. This paper uses measures of genetic distance between immigrants home and host countries as instruments for immigrants identity. We find some evidence for adverse effects of home country identity on male immigrants unemployment likelihood. Our results also suggest that a stronger host country identity only has a systematic effect on employment and job satisfaction. Overall, immigrants identity appears to play only a negligible role in immigrants labor market performance. Our analysis also shows the importance of accounting for endogeneity in the relationship between immigrants ethnic identity and labor market outcomes.