Language Training and Refugees’ Integration

2022/06/23 by Mette Foged, Linea Hasager, Giovanni Peri +2 · 1 voice · 5 citations
Social Sciences · #Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography #Migration and Labor Dynamics #Migration, Refugees, and Integration

paper · doi:10.1162/rest_a_01216

openalex publication_date 2022/06/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29

Abstract

Abstract We evaluate a Danish reform focused on improving language training for those granted refugee status on or after January 1, 1999. Using a Regression Discontinuity Design, we find a significant, permanent, positive effect on earnings. This effect emerged after completion of language classes and was accompanied by additional schooling and a higher probability of working in complex jobs, consistent with language training, rather than other minor aspects of the reform, producing the results.

Citations

• Immigrant Integration in the United States: The Role of Adult English Language Training
• The Labor Market Integration of Refugee Migrants in High-Income Countries

Cited by

• Institutional conditions and acquisition of language skills among young refugees: Investigating the German context
• Labor Policies and Immigrant Employment
• Permanent Residency and Refugee Immigrants’ Skill Investment
• Starting off on the Right Foot—Language Learning Classes and the Educational Success of Refugee Children
• Immigrant–native pay gap driven by lack of access to high-paying jobs

Discussions

• #EconSky Hi old friends! For new friends - a small introduction to my work in the past years with brilliant coauthors: 1) Adults with access to more language training earn more and work in more compl [bsky, 7 points, 1 comments]

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• Permanent Residency and Refugee Immigrants’ Skill Investment
• Institutional conditions and acquisition of language skills among young refugees: Investigating the German context
• ‘You can’t have a good integration when you don’t have a good communication’: English-language Learning Among Resettled Refugees in England
• Starting off on the Right Foot—Language Learning Classes and the Educational Success of Refugee Children