From Engineer to Taxi Driver? Language Proficiency and the Occupational Skills of Immigrants

Susumu Imai, Derek Stacey and Casey Warman

No 40, Working Papers from Toronto Metropolitan University, Department of Economics

Abstract: We examine the ability of immigrants to transfer the occupational human capital they acquired prior to immigration. We first augment a model of occupational choice to study the implications of language proficiency on the cross-border transferability of occupational human capital. We then explore the empirical predictions using information about the skill requirements from the O*NET and a unique dataset that includes both the last source country occupation and the first four years of occupations in Canada. We supplement the analysis using Census estimates for the same cohort with source country occupational skill requirements predicted using detailed human capital related information such as field of study. We find that male immigrants to Canada were employed in source country occupations that typically require high levels of cognitive skills, but rely less intently on manual skills. Following immigration, they find initial employment in occupations that require the opposite. Consistent with the hypothesized asymmetric role of language in the transferability of previously acquired cognitive and manual skills, these discrepancies are larger among immigrants with limited language fluency.

Keywords: Occupational Mobility; Language Proficiency; Skills; Human Capital; Immigration; Field of Study (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 J31 J61 J62 J71 J80 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 65 pages
Date: 2014-02, Revised 2018-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab, nep-lma and nep-mig
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Related works:
Journal Article: From engineer to taxi driver? Language proficiency and the occupational skills of immigrants (2019)
Journal Article: From engineer to taxi driver? Language proficiency and the occupational skills of immigrants (2019)
Working Paper: From Engineer to Taxi Driver? Language Proficiency and the Occupational Skills of Immigrants (2018)
Working Paper: From Engineer to Taxi Driver? Language Proficiency and the Occupational Skills of Immigrants (2014)
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