Ethnic Differences in Labour Market Outcomes—The Role of Language-Based Discrimination
| Autor: | Miriam Schmaus |
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| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | European Sociological Review. |
| ISSN: | 1468-2672 0266-7215 |
| Popis: | Host country language proficiency has been shown to account for ethnic differences in labour market outcomes. Prior studies generally assume that language skills represent a form of human capital, affecting employees’ productivity. However, language proficiency may also be associated with discrimination. Lower language proficiency may elicit distaste for certain ethnic groups, as it is a prominent reminder of the respective origin. When this reminder vanishes as language skills rise, group-specific distaste should also reduce. Employers may thus not only value language skills in terms of productivity but also factor in less group-specific distaste when evaluating immigrant jobseekers with high-language skills. Moreover, if employers lack information on competences that are hard to observe, high-language proficiency may prevent the application of adverse ethnic beliefs. Using data from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), I examine whether language skills affect crucial indicators of labour market success differently for groups that vary with respect to the level of distaste associated with them. I also investigate whether this effect is conditional on the amount of information available to employers. Findings indicate group-specific returns to higher-language proficiency, irrespective of the available information. This might suggest that, in addition to affecting employees’ productivity, language proficiency may also be associated with taste discrimination for certain ethnic groups. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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