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Social distance and wage inequalities for immigrants in Switzerland

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  • Ebner, Christian
  • Helbling, Marc

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of the social distance between immigrants and Swiss natives on wage inequalities. Social distance is assumed to be high when immigrants come from a different culture, a different education system and speak a different language. By combining these three aspects, this article goes beyond existing studies that only focus on cultural differences. The empirical findings indicate that, net of education, immigrants with a high or very high social distance from the receiving society are strongly disadvantaged in terms of their salaries. Additional analyses show that the impact of typical explanatory factors for labour market success such as education, citizenship and length of stay also vary by the degree of social distance between immigrants and their destination country. The analyses are based on data from the Swiss Labour Force Survey for the years 2010 and 2011, which allow for detailed analyses on individual immigrant groups due to oversampling.

Suggested Citation

  • Ebner, Christian & Helbling, Marc, 2016. "Social distance and wage inequalities for immigrants in Switzerland," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 30(3), pages 436-454.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:espost:171452
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017015594096
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Daniel Auer, 2022. "Firing discrimination: Selective labor market responses of firms during the COVID-19 economic crisis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(1), pages 1-30, January.
    2. Daniel Auer & Flavia Fossati, 2019. "The absent rewards of assimilation: how ethnic penalties persist in the Swiss labour market," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 17(2), pages 285-299, June.
    3. Frederik Thuesen, 2017. "Linguistic barriers and bridges: constructing social capital in ethnically diverse low-skill workplaces," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 31(6), pages 937-953, December.
    4. Igor Ryabov, 2024. "Cultural Distance as a Determinant of Immigrant Economic Adaptation in the USA," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 25(4), pages 2339-2359, December.
    5. Andreas Damelang & Martin Abraham & Sabine Ebensperger & Felix Stumpf, 2019. "The Hiring Prospects of Foreign-Educated Immigrants: A Factorial Survey among German Employers," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 33(5), pages 739-758, October.
    6. Pieroni, Luca & d'Agostino, Giorgio & Lanari, Donatella, 2019. "The effects of language skills on immigrant employment and wages in Italy," MPRA Paper 91725, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Daniel Auer & Flavia Fossati, 2019. "The absent rewards of assimilation: how ethnic penalties persist in the Swiss labour market," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 17(2), pages 285-299, June.
    8. Frederik Thuesen & Vibeke Jakobsen & Nina T. Dalgaard & Bjørn C. A. Viinholt, 2020. "PROTOCOL: Interventions to improve the economic self‐sufficiency of unemployed immigrants from non‐Western countries," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(4), December.

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