Language-skill complementarity: returns to immigrant language acquisition

Abstract

We examine the effect of language acquisition on the growth of immigrants' earnings. We gathered data on recent Soviet immigrants to Israel that include retrospective questions on earnings and language ability on entry into their current job. Language acquisition is found to interact positively with occupation level. Immigrant programmers and computer technicians have a return to tenure about three percentage points higher than that of natives; improved Hebrew language skills account for between 2/3 and 3/4 of that differential wage growth. In contrast, construction workers and gas station attendants have no convergence of wages to those of natives and language acquisition has no discernible effect on their wages. For these less skilled workers the estimated "return" to Hebrew proficiency in the cross-section is entirely due to ability bias. This finding may invite a reinterpretation of other studies on the returns to language acquisition for low wage immigrants.

Labor Mobility of Immigrants: Training, Experience, Language, and Opportunities*

“…Given this format one can interpret the Hebrew index Heb as a given process of accumulation of local language and social norms. 24 Berman et al (2000) find similar results with respect to the knowledge of Hebrew. Chiswick and Miller (1999) find that the earnings return for English proficiency among legalized aliens in the United States is between 8 and 17%.…”

A comparative analysis of immigrant skills and their utilization in Australia, Canada, and the USA

“…The logic is that in many production processes, implementation of cognitive skills requires communication skills. This idea is consistent with the evidence of Berman et al (2003) showing wage returns to Hebrew-language acquisition among Israeli immigrants employed in high-skill, but not low-skill, occupations.…”

Earnings and Languages in the Family: Second‐Generation Australians*

“…Voon and Miller (2005) also find an earnings gap between native-born Australians and immigrants from non-English-speaking background (NESOB). A similar phenomenon is observed in non-Englishspeaking countries such as France (Meng & Meurs, 2006), Israel (Berman et al, 2000) and Spain (Sanromá et al, 2009). The latter study shows that first-generation immigrants from Latin America or eastern Europe perform better than others in the Spanish labour market; the authors attribute the latter to cultural proximity and the former to a language effect.…”

“…The importance of language has been confirmed by Berman et al (2000) and Chiswick and Miller (2007). It has now been established that immigrants from non-English-speaking countries earn less than native-born workers with similar observable characteristics in the United States of America (Friedberg, 2000).…”