PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Gielen, Anne C.
AU  - Webbink, Dinand
TI  - Unexpected colonial returns
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.1123-13209R1
DP  - 2025 May 09
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 1123-13209R1
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2025/05/05/jhr.1123-13209R1.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2025/05/05/jhr.1123-13209R1.full
AB  - A ban on migration from Suriname, a former Dutch colony, to the Netherlands induced a mass migration and changed the selection of migrants. We exploit this historical episode to study the relationship between the self-selection of migrants and their long-term economic integration over three generations. ‘Beat-the-ban’ migrants, those arriving just before the ban, are negatively selected compared to economic migrants arriving earlier. This difference in selection is reflected in the outcomes of the first generation. However, the inequality in outcomes between differently selected migrants is not persistent. The offspring of negatively selected migrants has a faster catch-up to natives which can be explained by inequities in the country of origin.