Long-Term Effects of Language Course Timing on Language Acquisition and Social Contacts: Turkish and Moroccan Immigrants in Western Europe

The article investigates the long-term effects of the timing of language course participation among immigrants from Turkey and Morocco settled in Western Europe. In particular, we focus on self-assessed oral immigration country language skills  as  well as interethnic social contacts. Data stems from the 2008 Six Country Immigrant Integration Survey (SCIICS). We find a positive, long-term effect of language course participation in the first two to five years after immigration on language skills and social contacts. Even short courses of minor quality seem to have these effects. These results support linguistic theories on the benefits of early language instruction in an educational setting and socio-psychological theories on the long-term effects of (even short) social belonging interventions on participants’ perseverance in achieving educational success. Our results also confirm previous findings with regard to the effects of individual characteristics like age, age at arrival, education and social background on migrants’ command of the host country language.