Aspects of Linguistic Integration of Recent Immigrants to Canada: Determinants of English Language Proficiency, Role of English in Labour-market Integration Outcomes and Skills Utilization

The thesis explores the determinants of English proficiency as well as its role in labour-market integration outcomes and skills utilization. The Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada provides the data for the empirical analysis. The introductory chapter offers insight into the recent changes to the Canadian immigration policy as well as immigration trends. This chapter also outlines chapters Two through Six and establishes the conceptual framework that unifies them. Chapter Two introduces two theoretical approaches, human capital theory and macro-level factors of the source and destination countries’ framework. It presents a review of the literature and introduces a theoretical model of linguistic integration that is subsequently tested in Chapters Three and Four. Chapters Three and Four focus on the application of human capital theory and macro-level factors of the source and destination countries’ framework. Chapter Three explores the factors that contribute to the immigrant’s English proficiency upon arrival. Chapter Four investigates the role of human capital and destination country’s macro-level factors in English proficiency four years after migration. The principal empirical results indicate that macro-level factors of the source country are significantly related to the English proficiency at arrival, while macro-level factors of the destination country are significantly related to English proficiency four years after migration. The results also corroborate findings described in the human capital literature aiding comprehension of the relationship between human capital endowments and English proficiency. Chapter Five investigates the role of English proficiency in such labour-market integration outcomes as employment seeking, incidence of employment, and employment within ethnic enclaves. The study finds that English proficiency is associated with higher odds of employment seeking and employment in Canada. It also significantly increases the likelihood of being employed outside ethnic enclaves. Chapter Six integrates human capital theory and language as a dimension of ethnicity framework. The analysis concentrates on the role of English in immigrants’ skills utilization. The principal results add to human capital theory, indicating that English proficiency significantly increases the odds of skills utilization. The findings also reveal that immigrants who speak standard English are more likely to utilize their skills than non-standard English speakers.Ph