Earnings and English Language : Asian Indians, Chinese and Japanese Men in the United States, 2000

Veena Kulkarni, University of Maryland

Past research shows that knowing the language of the receiving country is a crucial variable in determining the extent of economic assimilation and subsequently the earnings of the immigrants. There have not been however, studies comparing the Asian Indians, Chinese and Japanese in this regard who constitute a major component of immigrants to the US in general, and from Asia in particular. Additionally, the three groups provide an interesting mix in terms of their language ability, level of development of their respective sending countries and historical presence in the United States. This paper using the 2000 United States Census data examines the relation between English language ability and the earnings for Asian Indians, Chinese and Japanese men. The dependent variable is; per capita per hourly income. The independent variable is English language ability with controls being age at entry, education, years of stay, martial status, occupation.