This thesis investigates how the age of migration influences the integration possibilities of immigrant children in the Netherland. For this purpose, language test results are used as a predictor for integration possibilities. The research uses the PRIMA database, which consists of six cohorts of children in the grades 2, 4, 6 and 8 in primary school, throughout the years 1994-2004. Using an OLS-method, and controlling for important determinants of language test scores, such as grade, social-economic status and schoolfixed effects, a continuous, significant and negative effect of arriving at a later age is found. No clear sign of a cut-off point – also known as the Critical Period – was found in the data. These effects are roughly similar per subgroup of the four main countries of origin – Suriname, the Antilles, Morocco, and Turkey. But the results document a significant difference in the performance of girls per country of origin. Girls from Turkey and Morocco perform relatively similar to their male counterparts, whereas girls from Suriname and the Antilles perform significantly better. Additionally, the results show a small but significant effect for linguistic distance, indicating that language of origin matters for second-language learning.

Gielen, Anne
hdl.handle.net/2105/37673
Business Economics
Erasmus School of Economics

Muskee, Gerben. (2017, April 25). The Effect of the Age of Migration on Learning Dutch as a Second Language. Business Economics. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2105/37673