تکمیل زبان و دیگر سرمایه های انسانی: درآمدهای مهاجر در کانادا

This paper analyzes the effects of language practice on earnings among adult male immigrants in Canada using the 1991 census. Earnings are shown to increase with schooling, pre-immigration experience and duration in Canada, as well as with proficiency in the official languages (English and French). Using selectivity correction techniques, it is shown that there is complementarity between language skills and both schooling and pre-immigration experience. That is, greater proficiency in the official languages enhances the effects on earnings of schooling and pre-immigration labor market experience. Language proficiency and post-migration experience appear to be substitutes, that is, those with greater proficiency have a smaller effect of time in Canada on earnings.

Language skills are a form of human capital. As with other forms of human capital, language skills are created at a sacrifice of time and other resources, are embodied in the person and are productive. Previous research has shown for several immigrant receiving countries that greater proficiency in the destination language enhances labor market earnings and that this investment provides a high rate of return (see, for example, Chiswick & Miller, 1995). Destination language proficiency is presumably also productive in consumption activities, although we do not know of empirical research on this issue. The purpose of this paper is to extend the analysis of destination language skills among immigrants. It does this in two ways. First, it extends the theoretical work by hypothesizing and then testing for whether destination language skills appear to be complements or substitutes in generating earnings with respect to other kinds of human capital, namely schooling and pre- and post-migration labor market experience. Second, it uses data from the 1991 Census of Canada to estimate the effect of language usage on earnings among immigrants in Canada. Previous studies for Canada relied primarily on the 1981 census. The analysis of earnings uses the now standard human capital earnings function adjusted to account for immigrant assimilation. The earnings function is estimated overall and using selectivity correction techniques separately by language use categories. Section 2 outlines the model of the relation between destination language skills and other forms of human capital. Section 3 describes the data used in the analysis, the 1991 Census of Canada. Section 4 presents the human capital earnings function that forms the basis of the empirical analysis and reports the findings of the analysis. Section 5 is the summary and conclusion.

This study shows that language skills are a key determinant of earnings among immigrants in Canada. Immigrants who cannot conduct a conversation in an official language and those who, while being able to conduct a conversation in an official language, usually speak a non-official language at home, have earnings around 10 to 12% lower than immigrants who usually speak an official language at home, when other variables are the same. The earnings gap is larger, 12–14%, among those who completed their schooling prior to immigrating. There is evidence of positive selection into the group that can conduct a conversation in an official language, but who usually speak a non-official language at home. The increment in earnings associated with an additional year of education is 5% among immigrants who usually speak an official language at home (L3), around 3% for those who can conduct a conversation in an official language who usually speak a non-official language at home (L2), and zero for immigrants who cannot conduct a conversation in an official language (L1). When evaluated at 10 years, the impact of pre-immigration experience for these three groups is around 2%, 1% and zero, respectively, while the impact of duration of residence in Canada for the three groups is around 1, 2 and 2.5%, respectively. The analysis in this study is consistent with the hypothesis that greater proficiency in an official language enhances earnings in the Canadian labor market and enhances the effects on earnings of schooling and possibly pre-immigration labor market experience (complementarity in production), but that it can be a substitute in generating earnings for other Canadian-specific labor market experience. Thus, immigrants who lack proficiency in the official languages of Canada have lower earnings because of two effects: the direct effect of lower proficiency and an indirect effect through the smaller returns from schooling and pre-immigration experience. The analysis of immigrant earnings presented in this paper has implications for immigration policy and absorption policy. An immigration policy that screens immigrants, in part, by their official language skills would result in higher earnings among the foreign born. An immigrant absorption policy that promotes investments in official language skills after migration and using these skills in the labor market and at home can enhance the value of the skills immigrants bring with them and hence the economic well-being of immigrants.