Recorrido histórico de las

As mentioned previously, the survey included a number of questions on Danish language courses taken, and on respondents’ own evaluations of their level of language proficiency both in general and in specific situations. Since all the immigrants in the survey had been legally resident in Denmark for at least two years, they had all had the opportunity to acquire at least some knowledge of Danish.

Table 3.4 presents a very general picture of the respondents’ evaluations of their own Danish language proficiency.

All respondents, both immigrants and second generation immigrants, were asked the question: “Do you consider your knowledge of Danish to be very good, good, average, poor or very poor?” If for the sake of simplicity we reduce the five categories to four, i.e. fluent, good, average and poor (poor and very poor), we can conclude that around one third of all Poles and Pakistanis estimated their Danish level as fluent. On the other hand, a fifth of Pakistanis said that their Danish was poor or very poor, as opposed to only six percent of Poles. The weakest Danish skills, according to respondents’ own evaluations, were to be found among Somalis, of whom only one tenth believed they spoke the language fluently, while a third assessed their skills as poor or very poor.

Around one fifth of immigrants from the former Yugoslavia, Lebanon and Pakistan considered themselves to be in the poor or very poor category. For those from Iran and Poland the figure was less than ten percent, and for immigrants from Somalia and Vietnam it was around thirty percent. If we ignore immigrants from Pakistan, Poland and Somalia, then we find that around one fifth of respondents assessed themselves in the highest category. Fifty to sixty

percent of all respondents, or a little more, assessed themselves as having good or average knowledge of Danish.

Table 3.4. In your view, is your level of Danish language proficiency ....? Immigrants and second generation immigrants, distributed by country of origin. Ages 16-70. Percent.

Form- er Yugo- slavia

Iran Leb-

anon Pakis-tan Po-land So-ma- lia

Tur-

key Viet-nam Allre- spon- dents1 Very good (fluent) 22 24 25 31 35 11 20 18 23 Good 23 45 24 21 34 27 31 17 28 Average 35 23 30 29 24 32 34 38 32 Poor 14 6 15 16 5 20 11 20 13 Very poor 6 2 6 5 1 11 4 8 5 Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 Number of respon- dents 476 404 402 424 430 401 548 441 3,526

1_{Weighted in accordance with the proportion of the Danish population of the national group.} Source: Rockwool Foundation Research Unit interview survey conducted in 1999 among immigrants and second generation immigrants in Denmark.

This project had a new feature, in that regardless of the language used for the interview, the conversation was always started in Danish. The interviewer thus had the opportunity to evaluate the respondent’s Danish skills on a scale. A comparison of the two evaluations suggested – as previous research in the area also indicated – that there was a certain tendency for respondents to over- estimate their knowledge. In 60% of the interviews there was agreement between the responses shown in Table 3.4 and the interviewers’ assessments. In 24% of the interviews the respondent assessed his or her Danish proficiency one category higher than did the interviewer, and in 4% of cases, two or more categories higher. Some respondents placed their Danish skills in a lower category than did the interviewer: in 11% of cases, one category lower, and in 2% of cases, two or more categories lower. Using the respondents’ evaluations as the basis for analysis thus meant that there was a certain degree of over- evaluation. It should also be mentioned, though without placing too much emphasis on the point, that half of the respondents who assessed their knowledge of Danish as “fluent” nevertheless asked that the interview be conducted in another language.

As mentioned in the introduction, it can be assumed that immigrants who came to Denmark as children have had greater opportunities to acquire Danish

language skills than those who came to the country at a later age, while second generation immigrants, who were born in Denmark, can be assumed to have the best level of knowledge of the language of the three groups.

To check these assumptions, the responses in Table 3.4 were divided up according to the three groups; the results were as predicted. Irrespective of whether the analysis was based on respondents’ own evaluations or those of the interviewers, there were few among the second generation immigrants and those who had arrived as children who had a poor knowledge of Danish (maximum 5- 6%). The only exception was for immigrants from Turkey who arrived aged 12 or under; 14% of these respondents were categorised by the interviewers as speaking poor Danish, though only 4% placed themselves in this category. In virtually all cases, a division of the responses in Table 3.4 according to gender revealed a lower assessment for women than for men, according to both respondents’ and interviewers’ assessments.

The following section seeks to elucidate the factors of particular significance for knowledge of Danish among those who arrived in the country aged 13 or older. As with the analysis of the educational level of the same group, the analysis was based on logistical regression. The dependent variable was assigned the value 1 if the respondent had fluent, good or average skill in speaking Danish, and 0 in the case of poor or very poor skills. The measure was a combination of the responses to how the interviewees assessed their Danish skills in five specific situations, for example in understanding the news or debates on TV or in expressing their views at a meeting. The analyses were made separately for men and women, because their Danish language skills were found to be at different levels.

Table 3.5 shows the explanatory variables included in the analyses. Variables above the dotted line relate to situations before and in connection with immigration, while variables below the line relate to the period in Denmark. In the case of the first group of variables there is no problem of causality, but in the second group of variables it is sometimes difficult to assess whether it is the language skill that affects the variable, or the reverse.

Explanations of why men and women had good or poor Danish language proficiency would appear to lie in part in different places, but there were also common trends.

The countries can be divided into two groups; it was particularly immigrants from Pakistan, Turkey and Vietnam who had difficulty with Danish. In general, there was a positive effect on the probability of having fluent, good or average Danish skills if a person had been a student or apprentice in his or her country of origin. This is a factor which could be expected to some extent to capture an

effect of age at immigration, but which would primarily have meant that these people were used to studying.

For men, there was also a positive effect, all other things being equal, of having completed a high school education before immigration.

Table 3.5. Significant factors for level of Danish language proficiency for immigrants aged at least 13 on arrival in Denmark. Ages 16-70.

Men Women

Factors relating to the period before and in connection with immigration to Denmark

Country of origin *** ***

Foreign education *** Not significant

Primary occupation in country of origin *** ***

Basis for granting of residence permit Not significant Not significant

Age at time of immigration *** ***

Period in Denmark

Length of residence *** **

Single/married to another immigrant/married

to a Dane Not significant **

Many/few immigrants resident in the neighbourhood

Not significant ***

Health *** Not significant

Primary employment in Denmark *** ***

Danish language classes Not significant ***

Danish education *** ***

Main language spoken in the home *** ***

Associates with Danes Not significant ***

Has raised level of education in Denmark Not significant _** Note: Significant at *** = the 1% level, ** = the 5% level, * = the 10% level.

Source: Rockwool Foundation Research Unit interview survey conducted in 1999 among immigrants and second generation immigrants in Denmark.

There were a variety of factors related to the time spent in Denmark that had an effect on the Danish language proficiency of men and women. For women, it was of significance in the model if they associated with Danes, had taken Danish language courses, or lived in a neighbourhood with many or few other immigrants. However, this is also a good example of causality that could operate in both directions. If it is not a random matter where one lives or whom one speaks to, then the correlation detected here may actually be the result of certain factors (e.g. motivation and preferences) that may find expression in choice of place of residence and circle of acquaintances. In other words, it might be that living in the same place and participating in the same activities would not have the same effect on language proficiency for other people if factors such as motivation were different. These factors had no significant effect for men, for

whom the most significant factors were to have taken a course of education in Denmark, to be in employment or a student, and to be in good health. For women, taking a course of education in Denmark and connection to the labour market were also of significance.

This does not necessarily mean that taking Danish language courses was of no importance for men. However, the effects of taking language courses may be obscured by the fact that those immigrants who acquire a certain level of Danish language proficiency, take courses of study in Denmark or otherwise use their professional qualifications are more likely than others to be able to obtain employment or be accepted on a course of study, and subsequently further improve their knowledge of Danish; and men do this more frequently than women.

With the reservations mentioned with regard to causality, it nevertheless appears on the basis of the analysis that it is important for Danish language skills whether immigrants participate in the life of the community in one way or another; whether they associate with speakers of Danish in everyday life is similarly important. Since having knowledge of Danish to a certain level has an effect on the chances of obtaining employment, it can be said that the effects of being in work or studying are to further improve Danish skills. For those women who are not active on the labour market, it is of significance whether they associate with speakers of Danish in their daily lives in some other way.

Length of residence in Denmark and age at time of immigration play a role for both sexes, and naturally the question of whether Danish is spoken in the home is also important.

3.2. The 2001 study

This section seeks to elucidate developments in the levels of education and Danish language proficiency among immigrants and second generation immigrants from the eight nationalities on the basis of the interview surveys of 1999 and 2001.

While in both surveys the interview was the only source of information about Danish language skills, in connection with the 2001 study it was also possible to obtain information about any foreign education from the registers at Statistics Denmark (see Larsen 2002). However, only around half of this information about education was based on actual reports; the remainder was based on estimates. A comparison at the individual level regarding information about foreign education in the statistical registers and in the interview surveys suggests that it was the more highly educated who were more likely to have submitted information about their qualifications to Statistics Denmark; others tended not to have reacted to the request to do so. Where the data used for the register were

based on responses from the individuals concerned, the proportions of immigrants with further or higher education were more or less identical overall across the two surveys, even if there were discrepancies for some individuals. When the information about education taken from the statistical records was based on estimates, however, there was a greater difference between the surveys and the register data; and generally speaking, the level of education recorded in the register statistics was higher than that recorded in the interviews for the same individuals. Where the register records were based on actual responses, the information tallied at the individual level to a reasonable degree; that is to say, the two sources corresponded in 70-75% of cases. The figure was rather lower when the information was based on estimates. In order to allow comparisons with the 1999 survey, then, the 2001 survey also used responses regarding foreign education from the interview survey only.

Even though the level of education among non-Western immigrants and second generation immigrants remained lower than that of Danes – with large differences from one country of origin to another – an increase from 1999 to 2001 can be detected in the proportion of men with further or higher education. However, the increased proportion with further or higher education is not an indication that the level of education among young immigrants and second generation immigrants was approaching that of native Danes in 2001. The difference between Danes, and immigrants and second generation immigrants was larger in 2001 for those in the 16-35 age bracket than for older people. The question of how much of the difference in education between Danes on the one hand and immigrants and second generation immigrants on the other was due to the best educated of the immigrants and second generation immigrants emigrating because of difficulty in finding suitable employment can be elucidated by examining whether those with further or higher education from Denmark were more likely to emigrate than Danes.

This appears not to have been the case. Both Danes and non-Western immigrants and second generation immigrants with further or higher education taken in Denmark were more likely to emigrate – especially for short periods – than others in their respective groups.

Knowledge of Danish among immigrants and second generation immigrants was found to be better in the 2001 survey than in the 1999 survey. This was the case regardless of whether the comparison was made on the basis of the interviewees’ own assessments or those of the interviewers. The trend was most evident among those immigrants who had come to Denmark as children (aged 12 or under) and among second generation immigrants. The proportion of immigrants with poor Danish language skills found in the 1999 survey had almost completely disappeared in the 2001 survey, and the proportion with only

moderately good Danish proficiency had grown smaller. The interviewers’ assessments of levels of knowledge of Danish in 2001 are shown in Table 3.6.

Table 3.6. Interviewers’ assessments of Danish language proficiency of immigrants and second generation immigrants, distributed by gender. 2001. Ages 16-70. Percent.

Fluent Good Average Poor Total

Men

All immigrants and 2nd

gen. immigrants 28 29 26 16 100

Immigrants aged 13 or over

on arrival in Denmark 15 31 33 21 100

Immigrants aged 12 or

under on arrival in Denmark 62 29 7 2 100

2nd gen. immigrants 88 10 2 0 100

Women

All immigrants and 2nd

gen. immigrants 28 21 25 25 100

Immigrants aged 13 or over

on arrival in Denmark 13 23 31 32 100

Immigrants aged 12 or

under on arrival in Denmark 69 22 8 2 100

2nd gen. immigrants 88 9 2 1 100

Note: Weighted in accordance with the proportion of the Danish population of the national group. Source: Calculations made by the Rockwool Foundation Research Unit on the basis of an interview survey in 2001 of immigrants and second generation immigrants in Denmark.

In all, more than 95% of the second generation immigrants and 90% of immigrants who came to Denmark as children had good or very good (fluent) Danish language skills. In contrast, half or less of the immigrants who arrived aged 13 or over had acquired these levels of Danish proficiency, with women having the least good command of the language.