TY - JOUR
T1 - The role of country of origin engagement in second-language proficiency of recent migrants
AU - Geurts, N.
AU - Lubbers, M.
PY - 2019/5/21
Y1 - 2019/5/21
N2 - This study theoretically and empirically addresses the interrelationship between transnationalism and second-language proficiency as a crucial aspect of integration in the first years after immigration. Attention is paid to country of origin engagement and distinguishes and tests such engagement in economic, political, social and cultural domains simultaneously as well as exploring it over time. Opposing hypotheses are formulated on the association between such engagement and Dutch language proficiency among recent Polish and Turkish migrants using assimilationist theory, offering a perspective still prevalent in societal debates, and transnational theory, proposed as an alternative to the former in previous studies. Three waves of panel data of the New Immigrants Survey Netherlands enabled studying migrants’ initial level of Dutch language proficiency after migration as well as recent migrants’ development herein. Neither assimilationist nor transnational theory finds support, suggesting that country of origin engagement matters little for recent migrants’ (development of) Dutch language proficiency.
AB - This study theoretically and empirically addresses the interrelationship between transnationalism and second-language proficiency as a crucial aspect of integration in the first years after immigration. Attention is paid to country of origin engagement and distinguishes and tests such engagement in economic, political, social and cultural domains simultaneously as well as exploring it over time. Opposing hypotheses are formulated on the association between such engagement and Dutch language proficiency among recent Polish and Turkish migrants using assimilationist theory, offering a perspective still prevalent in societal debates, and transnational theory, proposed as an alternative to the former in previous studies. Three waves of panel data of the New Immigrants Survey Netherlands enabled studying migrants’ initial level of Dutch language proficiency after migration as well as recent migrants’ development herein. Neither assimilationist nor transnational theory finds support, suggesting that country of origin engagement matters little for recent migrants’ (development of) Dutch language proficiency.
KW - Second-language proficiency
KW - recent migrants
KW - country of origin engagement
KW - migration
U2 - 10.1080/01419870.2019.1606434
DO - 10.1080/01419870.2019.1606434
M3 - Article
SN - 0141-9870
VL - 42
SP - 120
EP - 140
JO - Ethnic and Racial Studies
JF - Ethnic and Racial Studies
IS - 16
ER -