The Economic Value of Bilingualism for Asians and Hispanics

Authors: Shin, Hyoung-jin; Alba, Richard

Source: Sociological Forum, Volume 24, Number 2, June 2009 , pp. 254-275(22)

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Abstract:

This study examines how bilingualism affects the wages of Asian and Hispanic workers using 2000 Census data. In contradiction to the general belief that bilingualism can provide a competitive advantage in the labor market, we find no evidence that 1.5-generation and U.S.-born Asian and Hispanic bilingual workers generally have higher wages than their English monolingual co-ethnics; in some cases, in fact, their wages are significantly lower. In search of specific circumstances under which bilingualism might provide an economic advantage, we also examine interactions of language with such variables as education, employment in the public rather than the private sector, and the size of the population of mother-tongue speakers. With limited exceptions, we find no sign of greater economic returns to bilingualism. Since bilingualism requires considerable effort to maintain across generations in the United States, we conclude that the virtual absence of economic rewards for it creates pressure for linguistic assimilation.

Keywords: assimilation; bilingualism; ethnicity; language skills; new immigrants; race

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1573-7861.2009.01099.x

Publication date: 2009-06-01