New Book by University of California Los Angeles Professor Finds Bilingual Immigrants Have Better Jobs, Higher Salary

A new book shows a correlation between bilinguals and the use of foreign language with high rates of employment and higher wages.

"The Bilingual Advantage: Language, Literacy, and the U.S. Labor Market," written by University of California Los Angeles Professor Patricia Gándara, uses anthropology, economics, education, linguistics and sociology to analyze how bilingualism affects the socio-economic background of a new generation of bilinguals entering the global workforce in the digital age.

"The perception of some across the country is that immigrants are a drain on the economy," Gándara said according to Voxxi. "Evidence suggests the exact opposite is true. Those who learned English and maintain their native language earn more, have higher status jobs, and it also means they will pay more taxes and not resort to social service programs for support."

Some people believe the idea that only English is necessary to succeed in the working world. According to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, however, the employment of translators and interpreters in the U.S. is expected to increase by 22 percent between 2008 and 2018.

A 2011 survey also revealed that 42 percent of employers expected the demand for proficiency in Chinese to be highly sought after by recruiters; 70 percent said the same of Spanish.

Original studies by Gándara made an incorrect correlation between no economic advantage for those who were bilingual. In fact, the data showed bilingual members of society earned less. She noted these studies were flawed as they did not distinguish the level of language proficiency of respondents. The need to distinguish language proficiency is important because those who were equally proficient in both languages tend to be more successful than others who were more literate in one language compared to the other.

In Ganara's work she notes that the success of bilinguals comes down to people in society continuing the study of language. Bilingual advantage could disappear in three generations, she notes, if society doesn't work to incorporate bilingual language in schools.