Linguistic Barriers in the Destination Language Acquisition of Immigrants

50 Pages Posted: 12 Apr 2014

See all articles by Ingo E. Isphording

Ingo E. Isphording

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Sebastian Otten

University College London - CReAM - Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration; Rhine-Westphalia Institute for Economic Research (RWI-Essen)

Abstract

There are various degrees of similarity between the languages of different immigrants and the language of their destination country. This linguistic distance is an obstacle to the acquisition of a language, which leads to large differences in the attainments of the language skills necessary for economic and social integration in the destination country. This study aims at quantifying the influence of linguistic distance on the language acquisition of immigrants in the US and in Germany. Drawing from comparative linguistics, we derive a measure of linguistic distance based on the automatic comparison of pronunciations. We compare this measure with three other linguistic and non-linguistic approaches in explaining self-reported measures of language skills. We show that there is a strong initial disadvantage from the linguistic origin for language acquisition, while the effect on the steepness of assimilation patterns is ambiguous in Germany and the US.

Keywords: linguistic distance, language skills, immigrants, human capital

JEL Classification: F22, J15, J24, J40

Suggested Citation

Isphording, Ingo E. and Otten, Sebastian, Linguistic Barriers in the Destination Language Acquisition of Immigrants. IZA Discussion Paper No. 8090, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2424189 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2424189

Ingo E. Isphording (Contact Author)

IZA Institute of Labor Economics ( email )

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

Sebastian Otten

University College London - CReAM - Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration ( email )

Drayton House
30 Gordon Street
London, WC1H 0AX
United Kingdom

Rhine-Westphalia Institute for Economic Research (RWI-Essen) ( email )

Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
Essen, DE 45128
Germany

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