Scholars can rarely make causal claims about migration probabilities and outcomes. Leveraging a natural experiment based on the randomness of offspring sex, this paper uses the German SOEP Migration Sample to examine the effect of having a first-born son or daughter on parents’ likelihood to migrate and integrate. It shows that (non-Christian) parents of sons are more likely to migrate to Germany, but parents of daughters fare better after migration in terms of language acquisition, feeling at home and overall satisfied with their lives. The first finding is explained through gendered differences in parental investment, risk aversion, and household decision-making. The second finding is explained through girls’ greater ability to act as brokers between their parents and the host society. For migration scholarship, the study provides a rare causal argument about family migration. For research on offspring sex effects, it provides further evidence of a socialization from child to parent, expands the possibility of offspring sex effects from parental attitudes to behaviors, and cautions against assuming that offspring sex is random in all populations.

中文翻译：

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后代性别对父母迁移概率和结果的影响——一项自然实验

学者们很少能对迁移概率和结果做出因果断言。利用基于后代性别随机性的自然实验，本文使用德国 SOEP 迁移样本来检验首生儿子或女儿对父母迁移和融合可能性的影响。这表明（非基督徒）儿子的父母更有可能移民到德国，但女儿的父母在移民后在语言习得、在家的感觉和对生活的整体满意度方面表现更好。第一个发现是通过父母投资、风险规避和家庭决策方面的性别差异来解释的。第二个发现是由于女孩更有能力充当父母和东道国社会之间的经纪人。对于移民奖学金，该研究提供了一个关于家庭迁移的罕见因果论据。对于后代性别影响的研究，它提供了从孩子到父母的社会化的进一步证据，扩大了从父母态度到行为的后代性别影响的可能性，并警告不要假设后代性别在所有人群中都是随机的。