Employment effects of language training for unemployed immigrants

Proficiency in the host country's language is an important factor for a successful labor market integration of immigrants. In this study we analyze the effects of a language training program for professional purposes on the employment opportunities of the participants. We apply an instrumental variable approach and exploit differences in the local training intensities to deal with the problem of unobserved language skills in the data. Our results show that not taking into account endogeneity of language training leads to an underestimation of the effects. Bivariate probit estimates show that language training increases the employment probability of individuals with migration background who participated in 2014 by approximately seven percentage points two years after program start.