Alois Stutzer

Politico-Economic Analyses of Immigration and Integration

Many governments face the challenge of designing policies that catalyze the integration of immigrants and sustain the social cohesion of host communities. Against this background, we want to know to what extent open labor market access regulations as well as immigrant voting rights foster economic and political integration. We further question how the presence of immigrants, attitudes towards them and policy preferences are interlinked.

Project Fact Sheet (PDF)
Main Results (PDF)

Messages for Decision-Makers

As a tendency, immigrants avoid moving to municipalities where the local population holds negative attitudes towards them.
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Cantons with more liberal labor market access regulations facilitate the early economic integration of asylum seekers.
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Giving immigrants voting rights has an integrative effect. A study in Denmark finds that the possibility to vote reduces the number of petty offenses of non-EU male immigrants, at least for some time.

Project-related scientific publications Select publication   Slotwinski, Michaela and Alois Stutzer The deterrent effect of an anti-minaret vote on foreigners’ location choices 2019   Ilić, Dragan Prejudice in naturalization decisions: Theory and evidence 2018   Schmidheiny, Kurt and Michaela Slotwinski Tax-induced mobility: Evidence from a foreigners’ tax scheme in Switzerland 2018   Slotwinski, Michaela, Alois Stutzer and Roman Uhlig Are asylum seekers more likely to work with more inclusive labor market access regulations? 2018   Degen, Kathrin and Andreas M. Fischer Immigration and Swiss House Prices 2017   Sheldon, George Fiskalische Folgen der Immigration in der langen Frist 2017   Slotwinski, Michaela, Alois Stutzer and Cédric Gorinas Democratic Involvement and Immigrants’ Compliance with the Law 2017   Ilić, Dragan Self-fulfilling Prophecies in Rank Order Tests 2016   Ilić, Dragan Prejudice in Naturalization Decisions: Theory and Evidence 2016   Slotwinski, Michaela and Alois Stutzer The Deterrent Effect of Voting Against Minarets: Identity Utility and Foreigners’ Location Choice 2015