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In December 2004, the Volkswagen Foundation (VolkswagenStiftung) granted five million Euros to eight research groups to study “Migration and Integration” for the next three years. By means of integration policy research projects the initiative of the Volkswagen Foundation focuses on a productive accompaniment of the forthcoming internationalization processes of societies. IZA, as one of the funded study groups, started its project on the “The Economics and Persistence of Migrant Ethnicity” in April, 2005. It thereby aims to define migrant ethnicity, measure ethnic capital, and identify the parameters for immigrants’ success or failure in the field of economy and society.
The need for additional knowledge about the costs and benefits of ethnicity and migration has further increased as a result of the effects of globalization, the upcoming demographic burden, and the sluggish economic development in many parts of the world. A major topic of the IZA project therefore is to identify the forces which determine immigrant ascension to major indicators of success like citizenship, interethnic marriages and self-employment, as well as to define and measure immigrants’ ethnic capital.
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