Working Paper: NBER ID: w30003
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 stronger coordination within the Italian community and natives' backlash and negative stereotyping can explain these effects. Despite the negative effects on Italians' social assimilation, Italian churches had ambiguous effects on immigrants' economic outcomes, and increased children's literacy and ability to speak English.
Keywords: immigration; assimilation; religion; Italian immigrants; Catholic churches
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 |
|---|---|
| Presence of Italian Catholic churches (Z12) | Lower intermarriage rates (J15) |
| Presence of Italian Catholic churches (Z12) | Reduced residential integration (R28) |
| Presence of Italian Catholic churches (Z12) | Decreased naturalization rates (K37) |
| Five years of exposure to Italian churches (N93) | Lower intermarriage rates (J15) |
| Five years of exposure to Italian churches (N93) | Reduced residential integration (R28) |
| Presence of Italian Catholic churches (Z12) | Increased labor force participation (J49) |
| Increased labor force participation (J49) | Decreased occupational standing (J62) |
| Presence of Italian Catholic churches (Z12) | Desire to transmit cultural and religious values (Z12) |
| Desire to transmit cultural and religious values (Z12) | Naming patterns of children (J12) |