Interethnic Marriage and the Labor Market Integration of Immigrants in the Netherlands

Eylem Gevrek, University of Arizona

This paper investigates the role of interethnic marriage on immigrants’ economic integration in the Netherlands. To this end, the economic integration is measured in terms of the following labor market outcomes: earnings, employment, occupational status and job tenure. Using the data from the Dutch survey ‘Social Position and Use of Public Utilities by Immigrants’ , I examine whether immigrants married to a native have a better labor market outcome than those married within their own group. This study differs from previous studies in three main ways. First, economic integration is measured by focusing on a larger set of labor market outcomes. Second, the causal effect of interethnic marriage on earnings and occupational status is also examined in the sample of female immigrants by taking both the selection problem related to their labor force participation and the endogeneity of intermarriage decision into account. Third, I test whether or not intermarriage premium varies across generations.