The Impact of Missionary Type on the English Language Proficiency and Earnings of Immigrants

Nicholas Larsen () and Barry Chiswick
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Nicholas Larsen: Eastern Washington University

No 9500, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper analyzes the impact of missionary activity on English language proficiency and labor market earnings of all immigrants to the United States by using the pooled files of the American Community Survey (2005-09). We consider the colonial heritage of the origin country to determine if it is a missionary effect or an effect of colonial rule. Our results suggest immigrants from countries with a high concentration of Protestant missionaries tend to exhibit higher levels of English proficiency and earnings compared to Catholic missionaries. Furthermore, a higher proficiency in English enhances earnings. One of the important implications of the findings in this paper is that a "missionary variable" often used in other studies is too aggregate and may mask important findings because of strikingly different effects of Protestant and Catholic activities.

Keywords: proficiency; immigrants; Protestant; Catholic; missionaries; earnings; schooling; English language; American Community Survey (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 J24 J31 J61 Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2015-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab and nep-mig
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Published - published as 'The impact of exposure to missionaries on the English language proficiency and earnings of immigrants in the USA' in: International Journal of Manpower, 2019, 40 (4), 574 - 590

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