Ethnosizing immigrants: A theoretical framework

Recently, Constant, Gataullina, and Zimmermann (2009) established a new method to measure ethnic identity which they called the "ethnosizer". Using information on an individual's language, culture, social interactions, history of migration, and ethnic selfidentification, the method classifies that individual into one of four states: assimilation, integration, separation or marginalization. A large body of literature has emerged examining the effects of immigrants' characteristics (age, gender, education, religion, etc.) on their ethnic identity using the ethnosizer. This note presents a basic theoretical framework to shed light on the vast collection of empirical results obtained on this topic.