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Raciolinguistic ideology and Spanish-English bilingualism on the US labor market: An analysis of online job advertisements

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 August 2017

Nicholas Close Subtirelu
Nicholas Close Subtirelu*
Affiliation:
Georgetown University, USA
*
Address for correspondence: Nicholas Close Subtirelu, Department of Linguistics, Georgetown University, 1421 37th Street NW, Poulton Hall 24, Box 571051, Washington, DC 20057-1051, USANicholas.Subtirelu@georgetown.edu
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Abstract

Multilingualism is often framed as human capital that increases individuals’ labor market value. Such assertions overlook the role of ideology in assigning value to languages and their speakers based on factors other than communicative utility. This article explores the value assigned to Spanish-English bilingualism on the United States labor market through a mixed methods analysis of online job advertisements. Findings suggest that Spanish-English bilingualism is frequently preferred or required for employment in the US, but that such employment opportunities are less lucrative. The results suggest a penalty associated with Spanish-English bilingualism in which positions listing such language requirements advertise lower wages than observationally similar positions. Quantitative disparities and qualitative differences in the specification of language requirements across income levels suggest that bilingual labor is assigned value through a racial lens that leads to linguistic work undertaken by and for US Latinxs being assigned less value. (Multilingualism, labor market, Spanish in the United States, economics of language, raciolinguistics, human capital)*

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 46 , Issue 4 , September 2017 , pp. 477 - 505
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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Footnotes

*

I would like to thank two anonymous reviewers and Language in Society editor Jenny Cheshire for their helpful comments on the article. All remaining errors are my own.

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