Wealth and Savings of Migrants and Natives in Germany

In many countries, migrants hold less wealth than natives. This paper assesses how migrants and natives accumulate wealth over time by studying changes in net worth, referred to as savings, thereby contributing to the understanding of the migrant-native wealth gap. Relying on longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), the paper finds that natives, on average, do not save significantly more than migrants, despite of disposing of more income, more education, and receiving more wealth transfers. Although these characteristics translate beneficially into positive wealth accumulation, the study also finds that dissaving is relatively more important among natives, thus offsetting advantages in savings and preventing average wealth gaps from widening significantly.