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10 January 2022

Neighbours of same ethnic origin affect investment in host-country language skills

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This paper investigates the impact of having neighbours of the same ethnic origin on an immigrant's formal host-country language acquisition and labour market outcomes. It builds on an experiment that ran between 2004 and 2015 wherein refugees were quasi-randomly assigned to neighbourhoods in Denmark.

The experiment produced evidence that the higher their share of neighbours of the same ethnic origin, the lower the likelihood a person will enrol in host-country language courses. This was found to be the case for both men and women. In addition, language course progression is not affected by the share of neighbours of the same ethnic origin, but it is negatively affected by both the employment rate of neighbours of the same ethnic origin and the local employment rate.

Further results show that the stronger a person's network with those of the same ethnicity at the time of their arrival, the stronger their chances of employment, irrespective of gender. This lends support to the theory that living in an 'ethnic enclave' reduces an individual’s incentive to invest in host-country language acquisition (e.g., in order to secure a job that requires native language skills) because of the increased job prospects provided by their 'ethnic' network.

The Danish Integration Act led to a high uptake of host-country language training, by offering language training for free as part of the three-year introduction programme for newly recognised refugees, by making eligibility for means-tested social assistance conditional on participation in the introduction programme, and by spatially dispersing refugees across municipalities with relatively low shares of non-Western immigrants. However, the results of the experiment suggest that there may be a need to improve language courses to facilitate a person's participation in host-country language training after having found regular employment.

Having a job may be a powerful way of learning the local language, if the working language is the host-country language. Our study provides descriptive evidence that the most common occupations of refugees during the first four years after asylum have low requirements for host-country language speaking skills.

Co-Ethnic Neighbours and Investment in Host-Country Language Skills
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Details

Authors
Anna Piil Damm, Ahmad Hassani, Trine Skriver Høholt Jensen, Marie Louise Schultz-Nielsen
Geographic area
Denmark
Contributor type
Academics and experts
Original source
Posted by
Michala Clante Bendixen
Country Coordinator

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