The Bilingual Advantage

Language, Literacy and the US Labor Market

Edited by Rebecca M. Callahan, Patricia C. Gándara

Publication date:

03 October 2014

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Dimensions:

234x156mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781783092420

The Bilingual Advantage draws together researchers from education, economics, sociology, anthropology and linguistics to examine the economic and employment benefits of bilingualism in the US labor market, countering past research that shows no such benefits exist. Collectively, the authors draw on novel methodological approaches and new data to examine the economics of bilingualism for the new generation of bilinguals entering a digital-age globalized workforce. The authors also pay considerable attention to how to best capture measures of bilingualism and biliteracy, given the constraints of most existing datasets.

1. Rebecca M. Callahan and Patricia C. Gándara: Contextualizing Bilingualism in the Labor Market: New Destinations, Established Enclaves and the Information Age
2. Reynaldo F. Macías: Benefits of Bilingualism: In the Eye of the Beholder?
3. Sarah Catherine K. Moore, Molly Fee, Jongyeon Ee, M. Beatriz Arias and Terrence G. Wiley: Exploring Bilingualism, Literacy, Employability, and Income Levels among Latinos in the United States
4. Joseph P. Robinson-Cimpian: Labor-market Differences between Bilingual and Monolingual Hispanics
5. Amado Alarcón, Antonio Di Paolo, Josiah Heyman and María Cristina Morales: The Occupational Location of Spanish-English Bilinguals in the New Information Economy: The Health and Criminal Justice Sector in the U.S. Borderlands with Mexico
6. Amado Alarcón, Antonio Di Paolo, Josiah Heyman and María Cristina Morales: Returns to Spanish-English Bilingualism in the New Information Economy: The Health and Criminal Justice Sectors in the Texas Border and Dallas-Tarrant Counties
7. Orhan Agirdag: The Literal Cost of Language Assimilation for the Children of Immigration: The Effects of Bilingualism on Labor Market Outcomes
8. Rubén C. Rumbaut: English Plus: Exploring the Socioeconomic Benefits of Bilingualism in Southern California
9. Lucrecia Santibañez and María Estela Zárate: Bilinguals in the U.S. and College Enrollment
10. Diana Porras, Jongyeon Ee and Patricia C. Gándara: Employer Preferences: Do Bilingual Applicants and Employees Experience an Advantage?
11. Ursula Aldana and Anysia Mayer: The International Baccalaureate: A College-Preparatory Pathway for Heritage Language Speakers and Immigrant Youth
12. Patricia C. Gándara and Rebecca M. Callahan: Looking toward the Future: Opportunities in a Shifting Linguistic Landscape

This volume will appeal to a broad readership. Researchers can build upon the findings shared within to further explore the role of bilingualism in the US economy. Educators will find in it a tool to help make the case for bilingual education programs...For policy makers, the book also offers insight into how bilingual Americans live in the United States and provides cause for considering the cost of not educating balanced bilinguals...This volume does not provide all the answers, but it does aim to initiate a discourse on the perceived bilingual advantage.