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English Deficiency and the Native-Immigrant Wage Gap

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  • Alfonso Miranda
  • Yu Zhu

Abstract

We focus on the effect of English deficiency on the native-immigrant wage gap for employees in the UK using the first wave of the UK Household Longitudinal Survey (Understanding Society). We show that the wage gap is robust to controls for age, region of residence, educational attainment and ethnicity, particularly for men. However, English as Additional Language (EAL) is capable of explaining virtually all the remaining wage gap between natives and immigrants. Using the interaction of language of country of birth and age-at-arrival as instrument, we find strong evidence of a causal effect of EAL on the native-immigrant wage gap.

Suggested Citation

  • Alfonso Miranda & Yu Zhu, 2012. "English Deficiency and the Native-Immigrant Wage Gap," Studies in Economics 1213, School of Economics, University of Kent.
    • Handle: RePEc:ukc:ukcedp:1213
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    native-immigrant wage gap; English as Additional Language (EAL); age-at-arrival;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers

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