Faith and Assimilation: Italian Immigrants in the US

Abstract We study the effects of ethnic religious organisations on immigrant assimilation, assembling novel data on Italian Catholic churches across US counties between 1890 and 1920. Exploiting variation in the timing of church entry, we find that Italian churches reduced social and economic assimilation along dimensions that require more inter-group interactions, but had null or positive effects on outcomes for which cross-group coordination is less important. We provide evidence that coordination within the Italian community and natives' backlash are plausible pathways for our results. We also document that churches increased literacy and English-speaking ability of immigrant children.