Assimilation of immigrants: Implications for human capital accumulation of the second generation

Immigrants assimilate in various dimensions at different rates. Moreover, in each of these dimensions they assimilate at rates that may differ from those of their children. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the pace of assimilation of immigrants in various dimensions affects the rate of human capital accumulation of immigrant children. It is argued that rapid assimilation in certain dimensions serves to increase the rate of human capital accumulation of the second generation, while in other dimensions it may have the opposite effect.I thank Christoph Schmidt, Peter Schaeffer, and two anonymous referees for helpful comments. Responsible editor: Christoph M. Schmidt.