Intégration linguistique et performance économique d'une cohorte d'immigrants à Montréal : une approche longitudinale

Economic integration of immigrants is a process which, like linguistic integration, takes time. Both processes influence each other. The author analyzed a cohort of immigrants who arrived in Montreal in 1989 and whose main settlement acts were followed over ten years. She selected four moments during the ten-year period in order to examine the economic performance on a short, medium and long term perspective. Socio-economic status conferred by employment as well as the hourly wages were used as measures of the economic performance. The author repeated and detailed measures of language competence in French and in English as well as the language of education, if classes were taken during the observation period. Her results suggest that language characteristics of immigrants play a much less significant role in the determination of the hourly wage than anticipated. The measure of socio-economic status is more sensitive to the impact of language than wages. As the socio-economic status partly determines wages, the author found that the influence of linguistic skills on salary is indirect. Knowledge of the official languages gave access to jobs with a higher prestige during the first two years of stay in Quebec only. English had a more positive influence on economic performance than French. The author found that economic integration was not achieved for all immigrants after the ten-year period. She concludes that language competence does not seem to be at the origin of social cleavages among immigrants when one takes into account the evolution of their linguistic abilities in French or in English as well as the origin of the language skills. Mother tongue, on the other hand, explains observed status and wage differences among certain immigrants groups during the whole observation period.

PhD dissertation

Université de Montréal

Montréal

2006

fr