Do Emigrants Self-Select Along Cultural Traits?: Evidence from the MENA Countries

Author(s):  
Frrddric Docquier ◽  
Aysit Tansel ◽  
Riccardo Turati
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frédéric Docquier ◽  
Aysit Tansel ◽  
Riccardo Turati

2019 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 388-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frédéric Docquier ◽  
Aysit Tansel ◽  
Riccardo Turati

This article empirically investigates whether emigrants from MENA (Middle East and North Africa) countries self-select along two cultural traits: religiosity and gender-egalitarian attitudes. Using Gallup World Poll data on individual opinions and beliefs and migration aspirations, we find that individuals who intend to emigrate to high-income countries exhibit significantly lower levels of religiosity than the rest of the population. They also share more gender-egalitarian views, although this effect holds only among the young (aged 15 to 30), among single women, and in countries with a Sunni minority. For countries most affected by the Arab Spring, the intensity of cultural selection has decreased since 2011. Still, the aggregate effects of cultural selection should not be overestimated. Self-selection along cultural traits has statistically significant but limited effects on the cultural distance between people (i.e., between migrants and natives at destination or between non-migrants in origin and destination countries). Emigration could even reverse the selection effect and lead to cultural convergence if migrants abroad transfer more progressive norms and beliefs to their home country, a mechanism that deserves more attention in future research.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frédéric Docquier ◽  
Aysit Tansel ◽  
Riccardo Turati

1991 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-97
Author(s):  
Mazen Hashem

AbstractThe influx of Muslim immigrants into America has become steady inthe last decade, a development which raises the need for a theoretical outlookdelineating a model of an Islamic-controlled process of assimilation.Using Gordon’s model of assimilation, the paper suggests an Islamicposition regarding each of his seven types and stages of assimilation.In respect to cultural assimilation, the paper advocates an interactiveprocess of assimilation on the level of extrinsic cultural traits. Such a processutilizes six filtration procedures regarding different kinds of American culturalartifacts. But on the level of intrinsic cultural traits, the paper suggests acounterassimilation position, and considers it a cornerstone in keeping theoriginality of Islam.As to identificational assimilation, the paper defines Islamic boundariesrelevant to each of its three components: ethnic, national, and racial.The paper discusses behavior-receptional and attitude-receptional typesof assimilation in light of patterns of behavior that affect such reciprocity.The paper argues that civic assimilation is a crucial area where much ofthe Muslim community’s efforts could be invested.Finally, the paper briefly discusses marital assimilation and structuralassimilation.IntroductionAssimilation is an important subject that deserves careful considerationfrom minorities, marginal groups, and immigrants. The position of a groupon assimilation has far-reaching effects on its present and future, as well ...


2021 ◽  
pp. 097491012110311
Author(s):  
Salma Zaiane ◽  
Fatma Ben Moussa

The purpose of the study is to identify bank specific, macroeconomic, and stability determinants of both conventional and Islamic bank performance. We also try to identify evidence on the impact of financial crisis and political instability during the Arab Spring (AS) period. The study covers a sample of 123 banks (34 Islamic banks and 89 conventional banks from 13 Middle East and North Africa [MENA] countries) over the period 2000–2013. We use different proxies of performance as dependent variables: return on asset (ROA), return on equity (ROE), net income margin (NIM), and estimate several regressions using the dynamic generalized method of moments. Our results reveal that bank size, asset quality, specialization, and diversification are the major bank specific factors affecting performance of Islamic and conventional banks. Besides, macroeconomic indicators (GDP and inflation) and regulatory quality influence both types of banks differently. Finally, both the financial crisis and political instability negatively affect bank performance.


Modern China ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 009770042096992
Author(s):  
Huasha Zhang

This article analyzes the transformation of Lhasa’s Chinese community from the embodiment of an expansionist power in the early eighteenth century to the orphan of a fallen regime after the Qing Empire’s demise in 1911. Throughout the imperial era, this remote Chinese enclave represented Qing authority in Tibet and remained under the metropole’s strong political and social influence. Its members intermarried with the locals and adopted many Tibetan cultural traits. During the years surrounding the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, this community played a significant role in a series of interconnected political and ethnic confrontations that gave birth to the two antagonistic national bodies of Tibet and China. The community’s history and experiences challenge not only the academic assessment that Tibet’s Chinese population had fully assimilated into Tibetan society by the twentieth century but also the widespread image of pre-1951 Lhasa as a harmonious town of peaceful ethnic coexistence.


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