Linguistic Barriers to Immigrants’ Labor Market Integration in Italy

Abstract

This article investigates whether and to what extent poor proficiency in Italian impairs immigrants’ labor market integration in Italy. Using individual-level survey data, we apply instrumental variables methods to leverage presumably exogenous variations in Italian proficiency induced by immigrants’ demo-linguistic characteristics (e.g., age at arrival, linguistic distance between mother tongue and destination language, speaking Italian during childhood) and their interplays. We find that, given the low-skill nature of Italy's immigrant labor market, poor proficiency in communication skills (speaking and understanding Italian) produces larger penalties for immigrants’ labor force participation and employment than does the lack of formal skills (reading and writing). In contrast, no effect is found on immigrants’ job characteristics like the type of contract and full-time or part-time work. Whereas female immigrants were more penalized than males by poor linguistic proficiency in labor force participation, immigrants in linguistic groups that were more likely to work with (for) co-nationals were less affected by linguistic barriers than other immigrant groups. Yet, when investigating perceived integration outcomes, immigrants working with (for) co-nationals fared worse on feeling at home, feeling accepted, and overall life satisfaction in Italy. As our analysis shows, linguistic enclaves in workplaces, while not always representing a hurdle to immigrants’ labor market success, can generate trade-offs for other non-labor market integration outcomes. These findings highlight that the development of linguistic skills should be prioritized in migration policy agendas, taking into account heterogeneity in immigrants’ demographic and linguistic profiles.

Language distance and labor market integration of migrants: Gendered perspective

“…Surprisingly, proximity to English was not found to have a consequence on economic integration, stressing the importance of being fluent in the local language [ 8 ]. Additionally, migrants may choose occupations where their language barrier is less influential for their success [ 7 ]. Interestingly, the effect of language distance on migrant integration is evident even in the long term and for childhood immigrants who are expected to have time to learn the native language.…”

“…Second, migrant women encountered more significant language barriers to their participation in the labor force, particularly in terms of speaking and comprehension skills [ 7 ]. Discrimination related to language use against immigrant women exists for both high and low-skilled workers, albeit in different forms.…”

“…This is done by various institutionalized processes, such as a demand for “Canadian experience” for eligibility to feminine occupations [ 19 ]. Similarly, a recent study finds that limited proficiency in the Italian language had a more detrimental effect on immigrant women’s labor market outcomes than immigrant men [ 7 ].…”

“…This paper aims to understand the importance of language distance for the labor market integration of immigrants. Language distance between origin and destination was found to be associated with overall migration flows [ 1 – 3 ], migrants’ language acquisition at the destination [ 1 , 4 – 6 ], social integration [ 7 ], and labor market outcome [ 7 , 8 ]. Along the same line, language abilities and literacy are among the most critical aspects of migrants’ integration at their destination, and several migration studies show that language ability and literacy substantially affect migrants’ labor market performance [ 9 ].…”

Israeli‐Jewish immigrants in Germany: An assessment of the destination‐language acquisition model and the role of Holocaust memory

“…Even standing alone, however, language proficiency enhances ties with the host population, access to information, and, as a form of human capital, the efficiency of the transmission of immigrants' educational and professional qualifications into maximum returns (Greinier, 1982). In its most salient manifestation, these qualities are reflected in the positive relations that exist between language and economic attainment (Cheng et al, 2021;Ghio et al, 2022;Guven & Islam, 2015), citizenship (Extra et al, 2009) and homeownership (Constant et al, 2007). Hence, language indirectly amplifies political influence (Kritz & Gurak, 2005).…”