Access to Language Training and Local Integration of Refugees
Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › fagfællebedømt
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Access to Language Training and Local Integration of Refugees. / Foged, Mette; van der Werf, Cynthia.
I: Labour Economics, Bind 84, 102366, 10.2023.Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › fagfællebedømt
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Access to Language Training and Local Integration of Refugees
AU - Foged, Mette
AU - van der Werf, Cynthia
PY - 2023/10
Y1 - 2023/10
N2 - This paper examines whether language classes raise refugees’ language proficiency and improve their socio-economic integration. Our identification strategy leverages the opening, closing, and gradual expansion of local language training centers in Denmark, as well as the quasi-random assignment of the refugees to locations with varying proximity to a language training center. First, we show that refugees’ distance from the assigned language training center is as good as random conditional on initial placement. Second, we show that a one-hour decrease in commuting time increases the total hours of class attended by 46 to 71 hours. Third, we use this novel identification strategy to show that 100 additional hours of language class increases fluency in the Danish language by 8–9 percent, post-language training human capital acquisition by 11–13 percent and improve the integration of the refugees in the communities where they were initially placed, as measured by the lower exit rates from those same communities and an almost 70 percent reduction in mobility to the largest, most immigrant-dense cities in Denmark.
AB - This paper examines whether language classes raise refugees’ language proficiency and improve their socio-economic integration. Our identification strategy leverages the opening, closing, and gradual expansion of local language training centers in Denmark, as well as the quasi-random assignment of the refugees to locations with varying proximity to a language training center. First, we show that refugees’ distance from the assigned language training center is as good as random conditional on initial placement. Second, we show that a one-hour decrease in commuting time increases the total hours of class attended by 46 to 71 hours. Third, we use this novel identification strategy to show that 100 additional hours of language class increases fluency in the Danish language by 8–9 percent, post-language training human capital acquisition by 11–13 percent and improve the integration of the refugees in the communities where they were initially placed, as measured by the lower exit rates from those same communities and an almost 70 percent reduction in mobility to the largest, most immigrant-dense cities in Denmark.
U2 - 10.1016/j.labeco.2023.102366
DO - 10.1016/j.labeco.2023.102366
M3 - Journal article
VL - 84
JO - Labour Economics
JF - Labour Economics
SN - 0927-5371
M1 - 102366
ER -
ID: 381729216