The Return to English in a Non-English Speaking Country: Russian Immigrants and Native Israelis in Israel

Abstract

Using a unique sample of Russian immigrants and native Israelis, we examine the return to English knowledge. Panel and cross-section estimates of the return to English are substantial for highly educated immigrants and natives. Hebrew and English language acquisition contribute to immigrant/native earnings convergence, but most convergence is explained by other factors. While immigrants with low levels of education do not benefit from knowing English, native Israelis may. Conditional on occupation, English and Hebrew acquisition are largely orthogonal. Therefore earlier work on the importance of knowledge of the host-country language (Hebrew) is not significantly biased by unmeasured English knowledge.

Russian language skills and employment in the Former Soviet Union

“…Data limitations prevent the implementation of either approach. Instead, we implement a test favoured by Lang and Siniver () in which indicators of different language proficiency are added sequentially in the estimation of Equation . The intention in so doing is to reveal the extent to which unobserved ability causes bias in the effects of Russian language proficiency on employment.…”

“…Omitted variable bias is of particular concern in the context of this study since the knowledge of Russian may be indicative of general cognitive skills that are correlated with employment. We adopt an approach proposed by Lang and Siniver () whereby an indicator of an additional foreign language proficiency is added to the estimation. We do not observe significant changes in the estimated marginal effect of Russian proficiency when the two language indicators are simultaneously included.…”

Returns to Foreign Language Skills of Immigrants in Spain

“…This approach permits the identification of the causal effect of language skills on wages for the most important foreign languages in the European context. As far as I know, this is the first study to address foreigner's returns to foreign languages in general, apart from specific results on the returns to English proficiency of Russian immigrants in the Baltic states (Toomet, ) and Israel (Lang and Siniver, ).…”

“…(), and concluding in instrumental variables (IV) estimates of language skill returns by Chiswick and Miller (), Dustmann and van Soest (), and Bleakley and Chin (). Second, a variety of studies have addressed the positive labor market effects of speaking a second foreign language in general (Garrouste, ; Ginsburgh and Prieto‐Rodriguez, ; Williams, ), or in the context of immigration by Toomet () and Lang and Siniver ().…”

Living In And Between "two Different Worlds": Arab American Women, Identity, And Their Interethnic Romantic Relationships

“…According to previous findings, some married couples are assumed to have more relational turbulence in comparison to interethnic dating couples. More recently, Remennick (2009) notes that isolation can occur when individuals marry outside of their group, thus risking their status in regards to family members and other members of society. At the same time, Seshadri and Martin (2013) note that, when there is disapproval from a family member, couples confided in each other for support.…”