Determinants of Second Language Proficiency among Refugees in the Netherlands

Abstract

Little is known about the language acquisition of refugees in Western countries. This study examines how pre-and post-migration characteristics of refugees are related to their second language proficiency. Data are from a survey of 3,500 refugees, who were born in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, former Yugoslavia and Somalia, and who resided in the Netherlands. The analysis shows that speaking and reading skills are better among refugees who received more pre-migration schooling, who migrated from a major city, and who arrived in the host country at a younger age. Post-migration characteristics are also important. Language skills are better among refugees who only lived in a refugee reception center for a short while, who completed an integration course, who received post-migration education, who intend to stay in the host country, and who have fewer health problems.

Ideal ages for family formation among immigrants in Europe

“…Individual migrants may thus select destination countries based on values and norms they share with (or that are similar to) established immigrant communities and/or majority populations within a country of settlement (Van Tubergen, 2010). So too might selection operate through differential survey non-contactability and non-response due to residential mobility, issues of legal status, a lack of trust, language difficulties, or other sources of social exclusion (Barnes, 2008;Stoop, Billiet, & Koch, 2010).…”

Predictors of immigrants’ second-language proficiency: a Dutch study of immigrants with a low level of societal participation and second-language proficiency

“…Education helps to realize such a conversion process, presumably because higher educated people are more experienced in acquiring new skills (Carliner 2000;Dustmann 1994;Espenshade and Fu 1997;Massey and Espinosa 1997;Sole 1990;Stevens 1999;Van Tubergen 2010;Van Tubergen and Kalmijn 2005). Moreover, in the Common Underlying Proficiency theory on the transferability of skills across languages (Cummins 2000), it is argued that the first language proficiency is a good basis for learning additional languages.…”

“…It can thus be assumed that being proficient in the mother tongue facilitates learning an additional language (Dustmann 1994;Van Tubergen and Wierenga 2011). Furthermore, age at migration and health have been shown to be important efficiency-related predictors; younger immigrants (see, for example, Chiswick et al 2008b) and immigrants without psychological problems appeared to be more capable of acquiring second-language skills (Chiswick and Miller 2001;Van Tubergen 2010). Gender is also often considered as an efficiency-related predictor in the literature.…”

“…Much research was conducted in the language of the host country or in an additional lingua franca (CBS 2005: 50), in which languages many immigrants are not sufficiently proficient to participate in research. A second limitation concerns the measurement of the second-language proficiency, which typically consists of selfassessments of the respondents (Beenstock et al 2001;Carliner 2000;Chiswick andMiller 1995, 2002;Van Tubergen 2010), and occasionally of assessments done by interviewers (see, for example Van Tubergen and Kalmijn 2005;Van Tubergen and Wierenga 2011). There is some evidence, however, that standardized language tests, which are more objective than self-assessment measures, may be more valid with respect to actual language proficiency (Finnie and Meng 2005).…”

“…Building on previous work by economists and sociologists (Chiswick and Miller 2001;Esser 2006;Stevens 1999;Van Tubergen 2010), and taking into account specific characteristics of the immigrants participating in the current study, our first goal was to investigate whether we could replicate the findings from earlier studies using both subjective and objective measures of secondlanguage proficiency. Moreover, we explored other possible predictors of second-language proficiency that were not included in earlier research but that we argue to be of relevance.…”