Levels Mark, Dronkers Jaap, Jencks Christopher
Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
College for Interdisciplinary Education Research, Berlin, Germany.
PLoS One. 2017 Mar 16;12(3):e0172087. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0172087. eCollection 2017.
Using new direct measures of numeracy and literacy skills among 85,875 adults in 17 Western countries, we find that foreign-born adults have lower mean skills than native-born adults of the same age (16 to 64) in all of the examined countries. The gaps are small, and vary substantially between countries. Multilevel models reveal that immigrant populations' demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, employment, and language proficiency explain about half of the cross-national variance of numeracy and literacy skills gaps. Differences in origin countries' average education level also account for variation in the size of the immigrant-native skills gap. The more protective labor markets in immigrant-receiving countries are, the less well immigrants are skilled in numeracy and literacy compared to natives. For those who migrate before their teens (the 1.5 generation), access to an education system that accommodates migrants' special needs is crucial. The 1 and 1.5 generation have smaller numeracy and literacy skills gaps in more ethnically diverse societies.
通过对17个西方国家的85875名成年人的识数和读写技能采用新的直接测量方法，我们发现，在所有被调查的国家中，外国出生的成年人与同年龄（16至64岁）的本土出生成年人相比，平均技能较低。差距很小，且各国之间差异很大。多层次模型显示，移民群体的人口和社会经济特征、就业情况以及语言能力解释了识数和读写技能差距跨国差异的约一半。原籍国平均教育水平的差异也导致了移民与本土技能差距大小的变化。移民接收国的劳动力市场保护越强，与本土人相比，移民的识数和读写技能就越差。对于那些在十几岁之前移民的人（1.5代移民）来说，进入能够满足移民特殊需求的教育系统至关重要。在种族更加多样化的社会中，第一代和1.5代移民的识数和读写技能差距较小。
