The Socio-Economic Returns of Fluency in English as a Foreign Language

Abstract

Globalization has led to increased economic competition and to mass migration. These two joint processes and the proliferation of international and supranational organizations increase public and private demand for transnational human skills. While there is already some literature devoted to the national and international distributions of some of these transnational human skills, we do not have more than anecdotal evidence as to their role in people’s careers and in the position these people occupy in the stratification system. Arguably, of all relevant transnational skills, proficiency in foreign languages is the variable most likely to impact on a person’s professional opportunities in the global economy. This chapter focuses on the European Union as an ideal setting to comparatively analyze the relationship between proficiency in different foreign languages and socio-economic positions. Statistical analysis with Eurobarometer data shows that proficiency in English as a foreign language is related to the socio-economic position an individual occupies, net of other factors, and that the relationship is at least as strong as that observed between attained education and socio-economic position.