文章基本信息

标题：An analysis of a large dataset on immigrant integration in Spain. The Statistical Mechanics perspective on Social Action
本地全文：下载
作者：Adriano Barra ; Pierluigi Contucci ; Rickard Sandell 等
期刊名称：Scientific Reports
电子版ISSN：2045-2322
出版年度：2015
卷号：4
期号：1
DOI：10.1038/srep04174
语种：English
出版社：Springer Nature
摘要：How does immigrant integration in a country change with immigration density? Guided by a statistical mechanics perspective we propose a novel approach to this problem. The analysis focuses on classical integration quantifiers such as the percentage of jobs (temporary and permanent) given to immigrants, mixed marriages, and newborns with parents of mixed origin. We find that the average values of different quantifiers may exhibit either linear or non-linear growth on immigrant density and we suggest that social action , a concept identified by Max Weber, causes the observed non-linearity. Using the statistical mechanics notion of interaction to quantitatively emulate social action, a unified mathematical model for integration is proposed and it is shown to explain both growth behaviors observed. The linear theory instead, ignoring the possibility of interaction effects would underestimate the quantifiers up to 30% when immigrant densities are low, and overestimate them as much when densities are high. The capacity to quantitatively isolate different types of integration mechanisms makes our framework a suitable tool in the quest for more efficient integration policies.