Full Citation
Title: How Do Low Skilled Immigrants Adjust to Chinese Import Shocks? Evidence using English Language Proficiency
Citation Type: Working Paper
Publication Year: 2019
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Abstract: This paper examines the link between trade-induced changes in labor market opportunities and English language fluency among low-skilled immigrants in the United States. Many of the production-based manufacturing jobs lost in recent years due to Chinese import competition did not require strong Englishspeaking skills while many of the jobs in expanding industries, mostly in the service sector, did. Consistent with responses to these changing labor market opportunities, we find that a $1,000 increase in import exposure per worker in a local area led to an increase in the share of low skilled immigrants speaking English very well in that area by about half a percentage point. We show that part of this may be explained by selective migration, but we also present results consistent with actual improvements in their English language speaking abilities. For example, we show that low skilled immigrants in areas with more exposure to Chinese import competition became especially more likely to be enrolled in school compared to similarly low skilled natives. Regardless of whether low skilled immigrants respond to trade shocks via migration, active investments in language skills, or more passive on-the-job language learning, our results suggest that immigrants help to equilibrate labor markets.
User Submitted?: No
Authors: Furtado, Delia
Series Title: Working Paper Series by UConn
Publication Number: 2019-11
Institution: University of Connecticut
Pages: 34
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Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Migration and Immigration, Other
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