English-Language Proficiency's Effects on Earnings and Employment of Foreign-Born Immigrants in the United States

This dissertation studies the effects of English proficiency on earnings and employment of foreign-born immigrants in the United States. It enriches previous literature by developing a theoretical model to show the foreign-born immigrants' decision-making process of how much English proficiency to acquire, displaying a more complete picture by including female immigrants, and using more recent data.;Chapter 1 demonstrates the importance of English proficiency on earnings for foreign-born immigrants. It shows that English proficiency increases with educational attainment, time spent in the U.S. and receiving U.S. citizenship. Complementarities exist between English proficiency and other forms of human capital. In addition, the relative importance of English language proficiency is greater at the upper tier of the earnings distribution.;Chapter 2 investigates the effects of English proficiency on participation, employment, and occupational choices of foreign-born immigrants. It finds that high-skilled immigrants benefit more from greater English proficiency than the low-skilled in finding employment. Such benefits are greater for immigrant women than men at each English proficiency category. English proficiency does not have any significant impact on male immigrants work status. English proficiency is important for science/academic occupations. Those who are poor in English are more likely to choose service and laborer occupations.;Chapter 3 reveals that the importance of English proficiency on immigrants' earnings declined significantly from 1980 to 1990, and then rebounded slightly rebounded from 1990 to 2000. Results show that the negative effects of enclaves were the greatest in 1990. In particular, such effects were significantly stronger among those fluent English speakers in 1990. The relationship between English proficiency and the minority-language enclave effect is explored by including their interaction dummy variables, which further confirms the strong interaction between English proficiency and the enclave effects in 1990. However, living in an enclave made no significant earnings differences between those fluent and non-fluent speakers in both 1980 and 2000. The comparison between the percentage changes of immigrants with fluent English in and outside of each enclave in 1990 and 2000 reveals that of the 24 foreign language groups, 13 showed decreases in fluency in enclaves relative to non-enclaves, while 11 showed increases in fluency in enclaves relative to non-enclaves. Therefore, the evidence of large migrations from enclaves due to its lower return to English fluency is not strong. This may relate to non-earnings-related benefits of living in enclaves, such as social benefits.;In sum, these findings stress that English proficiency plays a key role in U.S. labor market success for foreign-born immigrants, which have significant implications for immigration policies.