Destination-language proficiency in cross-national perspective : A study of immigrant groups in nine western countries

Immigrants' destination-language proficiency has been typically studied from a microperspective in a single country. In this article, the authors examine the role of macrofactors in a cross-national perspective. They argue that three groups of macrolevel factors are important: the country immigrants settle in ("destination" effect), the sending nation ("origin" effect), & the combination between origin & destination ("setting" or "community" effect). The authors propose a design that simultaneously observes multiple origin groups in multiple destinations. They present substantive hypotheses about language proficiency & use them to develop a series of macrolevel indicators. The authors collected & standardized 19 existing immigrant surveys for nine Western countries. Using multilevel techniques, their analyses show that origins, destinations, & settings play a significant role in immigrants' language proficiency. 8 Tables, 1 Appendix, 82 References. Adapted from the source document.