Disadvantages of Linguistic Origin - Evidence from Immigrant Literacy Scores

26 Pages Posted: 25 Feb 2013

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: January 1, 2013

Abstract

This study quantifies the disadvantage in the formation of literacy skills of immigrants that arises from the linguistic distance between mother tongue and host country language. Combining unique cross-country data on literacy scores with information on the linguistic distance between languages, gaps in literacy test scores are estimated. Linguistically distant immigrants face significant initial disadvantages of linguistic origin that exceed existing diff erentials across wage distributions and between employed and unemployed subpopulations. The importance of the linguistic origin increases with the age at migration, confirming the linguistic Critical Period hypothesis. Assimilation in literacy scores is moderate and does not off set the initial disadvantage.

Keywords: Linguistic distance, literacy, human capital, immigrants

JEL Classification: F22, J15, J24, J31

Suggested Citation

Isphording, Ingo E., Disadvantages of Linguistic Origin - Evidence from Immigrant Literacy Scores (January 1, 2013). Ruhr Economic Paper No. 397, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2221277 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2221277

Ingo E. Isphording (Contact Author)

IZA Institute of Labor Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
170
Abstract Views
3,229
Rank
263,974
PlumX Metrics