Living and Working in Ethnic Enclaves: Language Proficiency of Immigrants in U.S. Metropolitan Areas

Julia Beckhusen (), Raymond Florax, Thomas Graaff (), Jacques Poot and Brigitte Waldorf ()
Additional contact information
Julia Beckhusen: U.S. Census Bureau

No 6363, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Learning English is a potentially profitable investment for immigrants in the U.S.: while there are initial costs, the subsequent benefits include the ability to communicate with the majority of the population, potentially leading to better paying jobs and economic success in the new country. These payoffs are lessened if immigrants choose to live and work in ethnic enclaves where the necessity to communicate in English is weak. Ethnic enclaves are widespread and persistent in the U.S. This study uses data from the 2010 American Community Survey to examine the impact of residential and occupational segregation on immigrants' ability to speak English. We allow for heterogeneity in the relationship between segregation and English language proficiency across ethnic groups and focus specifically on Mexican and Chinese immigrants. Our results show that immigrants in the U.S. who live and work among high concentrations of their countrymen are less likely to be proficient in English than those who are less residentially and occupationally segregated. The magnitude of the effect of segregation on language proficiency varies across immigrants' birthplaces and other salient characteristics defining the immigration context.

Keywords: residential segregation; ethnic enclaves; language acquisition; U.S. immigration; occupational segregation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 J15 J24 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 25 pages
Date: 2012-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mig and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published - published in: Papers in Regional Science, 2013, 92(2), 305-328

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp6363.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Living and Working in Ethnic Enclaves: Language Proficiency of Immigrants in U.S. Metropolitan Areas (2012)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6363

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().