Speak better, do better? Education and health of migrants in the UK

Yu Aoki; Lualhati Santiago

doi:10.1016/j.labeco.2018.03.003

Speak better, do better? Education and health of migrants in the UK

Yu Aoki, Lualhati Santiago

Office for National Statistics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

Does proficiency in host-country language affect immigrant social outcomes? This paper aims to address this question by estimating the causal effects of English language skills on education, health and fertility outcomes of immigrants in England and Wales. We construct an instrument for language skills using age at arrival in the United Kingdom, exploiting the phenomenon that young children learn languages more easily than older children. Using a unique individual-level dataset that links the 2011 Census data to life event records, we find that better English language skills significantly improve educational attainment and adult health, and affect fertility behaviour, but do not affect child health. Supplementary analysis suggests that a higher educational attainment as a result of better English language skills is a possibly important channel though which English proficiency affects immigrant health.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1-17
Number of pages	17
Journal	Labour Economics
Volume	52
Early online date	15 Mar 2018
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2018.03.003
Publication status	Published - Jun 2018

Bibliographical note

We are grateful to the editor, Albrecht Glitz, and two anonymous reviewers for comments that helped greatly improve our paper. We also gratefully acknowledge the permission of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to use the Longitudinal Study, and the help provided by staff of the Centre for Longitudinal Study Information and User Support, which is supported by the ESRC Census of Population Programme (Award Ref: ES/K000365/1). We thank Richard Prothero, and the participants of the EALE/SOLE meeting in Montreal, ESPE conference in Izmir, Applied Economics workshop in Catanzaro, and seminars/workshops at the University of Aberdeen, University of Alicante and CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis for discussions that improved this paper. Financial support from the Scottish Institute for Research in Economics and the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland is also gratefully acknowledged. The authors alone are responsible for the interpretation of the data.

This work contains statistical data from the ONS which is Crown Copyright and all statistical results remain Crown Copyright. The use of the ONS Statistics statistical data in this work does not imply the endorsement of the ONS in relation to the interpretation or analysis of the statistical data. This work uses research datasets which may not exactly reproduce National Statistics aggregates.

Keywords

Immigration
Language Skills
Education
Health
Fertility

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.labeco.2018.03.003Licence: Unspecified

Accepted Manuscript
© 2018. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Accepted author manuscript, 353 KBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

Yu Aoki
Person: Academic

Cite this

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title = "Speak better, do better? Education and health of migrants in the UK",

abstract = "Does proficiency in host-country language affect immigrant social outcomes? This paper aims to address this question by estimating the causal effects of English language skills on education, health and fertility outcomes of immigrants in England and Wales. We construct an instrument for language skills using age at arrival in the United Kingdom, exploiting the phenomenon that young children learn languages more easily than older children. Using a unique individual-level dataset that links the 2011 Census data to life event records, we find that better English language skills significantly improve educational attainment and adult health, and affect fertility behaviour, but do not affect child health. Supplementary analysis suggests that a higher educational attainment as a result of better English language skills is a possibly important channel though which English proficiency affects immigrant health.",

keywords = "Immigration, Language Skills, Education, Health, Fertility",

author = "Yu Aoki and Lualhati Santiago",

note = "We are grateful to the editor, Albrecht Glitz, and two anonymous reviewers for comments that helped greatly improve our paper. We also gratefully acknowledge the permission of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to use the Longitudinal Study, and the help provided by staff of the Centre for Longitudinal Study Information and User Support, which is supported by the ESRC Census of Population Programme (Award Ref: ES/K000365/1). We thank Richard Prothero, and the participants of the EALE/SOLE meeting in Montreal, ESPE conference in Izmir, Applied Economics workshop in Catanzaro, and seminars/workshops at the University of Aberdeen, University of Alicante and CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis for discussions that improved this paper. Financial support from the Scottish Institute for Research in Economics and the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland is also gratefully acknowledged. The authors alone are responsible for the interpretation of the data. This work contains statistical data from the ONS which is Crown Copyright and all statistical results remain Crown Copyright. The use of the ONS Statistics statistical data in this work does not imply the endorsement of the ONS in relation to the interpretation or analysis of the statistical data. This work uses research datasets which may not exactly reproduce National Statistics aggregates.",

year = "2018",

month = jun,

doi = "10.1016/j.labeco.2018.03.003",

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AU - Santiago, Lualhati

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N2 - Does proficiency in host-country language affect immigrant social outcomes? This paper aims to address this question by estimating the causal effects of English language skills on education, health and fertility outcomes of immigrants in England and Wales. We construct an instrument for language skills using age at arrival in the United Kingdom, exploiting the phenomenon that young children learn languages more easily than older children. Using a unique individual-level dataset that links the 2011 Census data to life event records, we find that better English language skills significantly improve educational attainment and adult health, and affect fertility behaviour, but do not affect child health. Supplementary analysis suggests that a higher educational attainment as a result of better English language skills is a possibly important channel though which English proficiency affects immigrant health.

AB - Does proficiency in host-country language affect immigrant social outcomes? This paper aims to address this question by estimating the causal effects of English language skills on education, health and fertility outcomes of immigrants in England and Wales. We construct an instrument for language skills using age at arrival in the United Kingdom, exploiting the phenomenon that young children learn languages more easily than older children. Using a unique individual-level dataset that links the 2011 Census data to life event records, we find that better English language skills significantly improve educational attainment and adult health, and affect fertility behaviour, but do not affect child health. Supplementary analysis suggests that a higher educational attainment as a result of better English language skills is a possibly important channel though which English proficiency affects immigrant health.

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ER -

Speak better, do better? Education and health of migrants in the UK

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

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Yu Aoki

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