Abstract

Proficiency in the host country’s language is an important factor for successful labor market integration of immigrants. This project provides detailed Information on the characteristics of the participants who entered a language training program for professional purposes (ESF-BAMF program) in 2014. Moreover, we analyze the effects of the language training program on the employment opportunities of the participants using register data. We apply an instrumental variable approach and exploit the differences in local training intensities to deal with the problem of unobserved language skills in the data.