Does the desire to remit foster integration? Evidence from migrants in Spain

•We study the relationship between remittances and integration at destination.•We use changes in macroeconomic variables as instruments.•The desire to send remittances intensifies social activities and hence social integration.

We enquire empirically how migrants' desire to send remittances back home fosters integration at destination. Starting from a model by Stark and Dorn (2013) in which the aspiration to remit is shown to induce migrants to acquire costly host-country specific social and human capital in order to obtain higher income, we measure migrants' integration effort by social participation. Our results confirm the theoretical model.