Employers’ Language Proficiency Requirements and Hiring of Immigrants
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Labor markets in advanced economies have undergone substantial change due to globalization, technological improvements, and organizational changes, making language proficiency increasingly important even in less skilled jobs. Has this development led employers to shy away from hiring immigrants with limited host-country language skills? We shed light on this question by conducting a large-scale field experiment, where we introduce common second-language features in immigrants’ resumes. We also conduct employer surveys to interpret our experimental results. Our main finding is that language proficiency has a strong positive effect on being invited to a job interview, even in typical immigrant entry jobs.
Source: The Journal of Human Resources
Authors: Magnus Carlsson, Stefan Eriksson, Dan-Olof Rooth
Institutions: Linnaeus University, Uppsala University, Stockholm University
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7123363307
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