Economic Aptitude Despite having the cognitive capability in a subject that they have been thoroughly educated on, such immigrants are unable to the economic opportunities that they are capable of due to the language barrier. Therefore English proficiency can be seen as a variable in the equation to calculate economic aptitude. determinants of English-language proficiency include cultural and other traits that U.S. immigrants acquire either at birth or while growing up in their home countries, the human capital and other endowments …show more content…
Well the fact that immigrants seek low skill jobs is not due to the fact that they are not capable of performing and being successful in high skill jobs. The problem lies not with the level of education but the mastery of the language; however this leads to a common misconception about the aptitude of the immigrants’ ability to perform in a high skill job. While these immigrants may have the skills to advance to high skill employment their lack of English fluency prohibits them from doing so. It is not to say that all immigrants lack English fluency however the majority of the immigrant population does and they earn 29.1% less than their fluent counterparts (Zhen 37). Furthermore the gap in proficiency leads such immigrants to have a substantially lower income than their counterparts with a higher level of master of the English language. It may be arguable that these immigrants lacking English fluency go to some sort of class to educate themselves further but sadly the life of an immigrant is often hard. Their priorities center on their self-survival and if they have families the needs of the children are often prioritized before their own, furthermore many work to send earnings back home to family and simply do not have the time or adequate resources to pursue education for a higher English proficiency. They are often trapped in the world of the low skill minimum wage to high labor jobs in which there is little room for advancement or growth and even more restricted advancement opportunities due to the fact that they are immigrants with a poor English