Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/21505 
Year of Publication: 
2002
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 451
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
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 preimmigration 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.
Subjects: 
Immigrants
human capital
language skills
schooling
earnings
Canada
JEL: 
J61
J31
J24
I21
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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