IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/applec/v33y2001i15p1971-1979.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Language training, language proficiency and earnings of immigrants in Norway

Author

Listed:
  • John Hayfron

Abstract

This paper uses a simple probit model to determine the impact of language training on the language proficiency of Third World immigrant men in Norway. It also estimates the labour market returns to Norwegian language proficiency. The results show that immigrants who participate in language training programme are more likely to acquire speaking and reading proficiencies in Norwegian language than those who do not. Contrary to expectation, language proficiency has no significant effect on immigrants' earnings. A probable explanation may be that immigrants need Norwegian language proficiency to get into jobs in the Norwegian labour market. Once they are in employment, their wages are not necessarily determined by their proficiency in Norwegian. Consistent with the assimilation hypothesis, earlier waves of immigrants have higher earnings than do more recent waves, and part of the initial earnings deficit experienced by more recent immigrants can be attributed to language deficiency. There was no evidence of sample selection bias in the earnings equation.

Suggested Citation

  • John Hayfron, 2001. "Language training, language proficiency and earnings of immigrants in Norway," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(15), pages 1971-1979.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:33:y:2001:i:15:p:1971-1979
    DOI: 10.1080/00036840010018630
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00036840010018630
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00036840010018630?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Geoffrey Carliner, 1995. "The Language Ability of U.S. Immigrants: Assimilation and Cohort Effects," NBER Working Papers 5222, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kristen, Cornelia & Mühlau, Peter & Schacht, Diana, 2016. "Language acquisition of recently arrived immigrants in England, Germany, Ireland, and the Netherlands," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 16(2), pages 180-212.
    2. Chiswick, Barry R. & Taengnoi, Sarinda, 2007. "Occupational Choice of High Skilled Immigrants in the United States," IZA Discussion Papers 2969, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Liliana Sousa, 2013. "Community Determinants Of Immigrant Self-Employment: Human Capital Spillovers And Ethnic Enclaves," Working Papers 13-21, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    4. Albert Saiz & Elena Zoido, 2002. "The returns to speaking a second language," Working Papers 02-16, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    5. Gil S. Epstein & Dalit Gafni & Erez Siniver, 2014. "Even Education and Experience Has Its Limits: Closing the Wage Gap," Working Papers 2014-14, Bar-Ilan University, Department of Economics.
    6. Antecol, Heather & Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. & Trejo, Stephen J., 2002. "Human Capital and Earnings of Female Immigrants to Australia, Canada, and the United States," IZA Discussion Papers 575, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Lennart Delander & Mats Hammarstedt & Jonas MÃ…nsson & Erik Nyberg, 2005. "Integration of Immigrants," Evaluation Review, , vol. 29(1), pages 24-41, February.
    8. Gil S. Epstein & Erez Siniver, 2012. "Can an ethnic group climb up from the bottom of the ladder?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 32(3), pages 2414-2441.
    9. Libertad González, 2005. "Nonparametric bounds on the returns to language skills," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(6), pages 771-795.
    10. Lang Kevin & Siniver Erez, 2009. "The Return to English in a Non-English Speaking Country: Russian Immigrants and Native Israelis in Israel," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 9(1), pages 1-30, November.
    11. A. Gonzalez, 2000. "The acquisition and labor market value of four English skills: new evidence from NALS," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 18(3), pages 259-269, July.
    12. Jens Ruhose, 2013. "Bildungsleistungen von Migranten und deren Determinanten – Teil II: Primar-, Sekundar- und Tertiärbereich," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 66(10), pages 24-38, May.
    13. Worswick, Christopher, 2001. "School Performance of the Children of Immigrants in Canada, 1994-98," Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series 2001178e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch.
    14. Berman, Eli & Lang, Kevin & Siniver, Erez, 2003. "Language-skill complementarity: returns to immigrant language acquisition," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 265-290, June.
    15. Dipanwita Sarkar & Trevor C. Collier, 2019. "Does host-country education mitigate immigrant inefficiency? Evidence from earnings of Australian university graduates," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 81-106, January.
    16. Sharun Mukand & Sanjay Jain & Sumon Majumdar, 2008. "Workers Without Borders? Culture, Migration And The Political Limits To Globalization," Working Paper 1196, Economics Department, Queen's University.
    17. Åslund, Olof & Engdahl, Mattias, 2018. "The value of earning for learning: Performance bonuses in immigrant language training," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 192-204.
    18. Marina Gindelsky, 2019. "Testing the acculturation of the 1.5 generation in the United States: Is there a “critical” age of migration?," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 31-65, March.
    19. Schaeffer, Peter V., 2006. "Outline of an Economic Theory of Assimilation," Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, vol. 36(2), pages 1-8.
    20. Maude Toussaint-Comeau, 2005. "Do enclaves matter in immigrants’ self-employment decision?," Working Paper Series WP-05-23, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:33:y:2001:i:15:p:1971-1979. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RAEC20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.