Using longitudinal data on immigrants in the Netherlands for the years 1991, 1994, 1998, 2002, we examined the impacts of social contacts and Dutch language proficiency on adult foreign-born men’s earnings, employment and occupational status. The main conclusions are as follows. On average, social contacts and a good mastery of the Dutch language enhance immigrants’ economic performances. The effects are stronger for immigrants with low-skilltransferability than for immigrants with high-skill-transferability, and are stronger for economic migrants than for non-economic migrants. Contact with Dutch people and Dutch organisations unambiguously enhances all aspects of immigrants’ economic performance, however, we found no evidence for the positive effect of co-ethnic contact on employment status.

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IZA - Institute for the Study of Labor - Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit
hdl.handle.net/1765/126822
IZA Discussion Paper Series
Tinbergen Institute

Chiswick, B., & Wang, Z. (2016). Social Contacts, Dutch Language Proficiency and Immigrant Economic Performance in the Netherlands (No. No. 9760). IZA Discussion Paper Series. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1765/126822