Abstract
Learning the local language is important for the successful integration of immigrants. Previous research has identified a number of sociodemographic factors that are associated with the effectiveness of local language acquisition among immigrants, but little is known about the influence of psychological differences on immigrants’ local language acquisition. In the present research, individual differences in general mental ability (GMA), work search intention, and personality traits Conscientiousness and Openness were studied among recently arrived Syrian (n = 1054) and Eritrean (n = 500) refugees in the Netherlands. The results revealed that in addition to the effects of age of arrival, local length of stay, premigration educational attainment, and psychological distress, GMA and work search intention were positively associated with refugees’ local language proficiency. Additionally, work search intention was found to strengthen the effect of GMA on local language proficiency. No positive linear effects were observed for Conscientiousness and Openness. Some evidence was found for curvilinear relationships between psychological predictors and local language proficiency. Implications are discussed.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1385-1400 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | European Journal of Social Psychology |
| Volume | 49 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| Early online date | 23 Apr 2019 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Dec 2019 |
Funding
Grateful acknowledgement is provided to Remko van den Berg, Jacek Buczny, and Reinout E. de Vries for their assistance with the data collection and the statistical analyses. We also thank the NOA foundation for financial support.
Keywords
- conscientiousness
- general mental ability
- local language proficiency
- openness
- refugees
- work search intention
