Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP15794
Authors: Stefano Gagliarducci; Marco Tabellini
Abstract: How do ethnic religious organizations influence immigrants’ assimilation in host societies? This paper offers the first systematic answer to this question by focusing on Italian Catholic churches in the US between 1890 and 1920, when four million Italians moved to America, and anti-Catholic sentiments were widespread. Relying on newly collected data on the presence of Italian Catholic churches across counties over time, we implement a difference-in-differences design. We find that Italian churches reduced the social assimilation of Italian immigrants, lowering intermarriage, residential integration, and naturalization rates. We provide evidence that both stronger coordination within the Italian community and negative stereotyping among natives can explain these effects. Yet, Italian churches had ambiguous effects on immigrants' economic outcomes, and increased literacy and ability to speak English among Italian children.
Keywords: immigration; assimilation; religious organizations
JEL Codes: J15; N31; Z12
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Exposure to Italian churches (N93) | Intermarriage rates (J12) |
| Exposure to Italian churches (N93) | Residential integration (R28) |
| Exposure to Italian churches (N93) | Naturalization rates (K37) |
| Presence of Italian churches (Z12) | Labor force participation (J21) |
| Presence of Italian churches (Z12) | Occupational income scores (J31) |