Social Contacts, Dutch Language Proficiency and Immigrant Economic Performance in the Netherlands: A Longitudinal Study

Barry Chiswick and Zhiling Wang ()
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Zhiling Wang: Erasmus University Rotterdam

No 9760, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Using longitudinal data on immigrants in the Netherlands for the years 1991, 1994, 1998, 2002, we examined the impacts of social contacts and Dutch language proficiency on adult foreign-born men's earnings, employment and occupational status. The main conclusions are as follows. On average, social contacts and a good mastery of the Dutch language enhance immigrants' economic performances. The effects are stronger for immigrants with low-skill-transferability than for immigrants with high-skill-transferability, and are stronger for economic migrants than for non-economic migrants. Contact with Dutch people and Dutch organisations unambiguously enhances all aspects of immigrants' economic performance, however, we found no evidence for the positive effect of co-ethnic contact on employment status.

Keywords: social capital; Dutch language proficiency; labour market performance; Dutch immigrants; skill transferability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J15 J61 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2016-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-eur, nep-lab, nep-mig and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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