Photo: Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

Immigrant integration is key to realizing the potential of international migration in economic development. Yet integration is often hampered by immigrants’ limited social networks beyond their co-ethnics. Native social contacts can, in principle, improve integration by providing access to information, referrals, and new social norms; but rigorous evidence on this remains scarce.

This project studies how contact with natives affects immigrants’ social and economic outcomes through a randomized controlled trial (RCT). We have partnered with a Swedish NGO that annually matches over one thousand pairs of native Swedes and immigrants for informal meetings designed to promote new social connections and facilitate integration. Using a combination of survey and Swedish administrative register data, we study how such matches affect immigrants’ social relations and values, and whether they lead to better labor and housing market outcomes via access to information or referrals. We also examine changes in immigrants’ attachment to their country of origin and remittances to family and friends abroad.

Publication

Accepted for publication in Journal of Development Economics (Pre-Results Review). The paper has been accepted based on the research design prior to results becoming available.

Trial registration: AEA RCT Registry 6714

Funding

This project has been funded by Handelsbanken Research Foundations and the Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy (IFAU).