From Fluency to Employment: How State and Regional Language Skills Shape Immigrants’ Labour Market Outcomes

It has been widely demonstrated that proficiency in the host country’s language is important for the labour market integration of immigrants. However, few studies have analysed the role of immigrants’ language skills in bilingual contexts. Drawing on representative data from five Spanish autonomous communities, we investigate the differential role of fluency in Spanish—the state language—and in the regional co-official languages (Catalan, Basque, and Galician). The results show that fluency in Spanish is associated with a higher likelihood of being employed, whereas fluency in a regional language shows no measurable association with this outcome. However, when considering access to highly skilled occupations, a different pattern emerges: fluency in two of the three regional languages (Catalan and Basque) is positively associated with skilled employment, while Spanish shows no significant association. These findings suggest a dual function of language skills: Spanish acts as a general gateway to the labour market, while regional languages function as symbolic and context-specific capital, facilitating access to skilled occupations. The article challenges a uniform view of linguistic capital and underscores the relevance of local identity dynamics in shaping migrants’ labour trajectories. It concludes by suggesting the value of moving beyond mere course provision and pointing to the importance of promoting both the effective acquisition of language skills by immigrants and their recognition by employers and institutions as part of professional development pathways.