Languages used at Home and the Earnings of Immigrants in Canada

This paper uses data from the 2011 National Household Survey with a sample restricted to employed immigrants aged 25-64 years. The purpose is to find the association between the languages most often and regularly used at home and immigrant earnings. The sample includes only immigrants living outside Quebec in order to focus on the use of English as opposed to the immigrants’ native languages. The results suggest that home language is a significant determinant of earnings, and that those who do not speak mainly English at home earn about 10 percent less than those who speak only English at home. In terms of the other control variables, earnings are lower for females than for males. As for birthplaces, the earnings of individuals born in North America are higher than those of immigrants born in Asia, especially China, India, and the Philippines, but they are lower than those of immigrants from Europe. The negative effects of using languages other than English at home on earnings are larger in Toronto and Vancouver than in the rest of Canada