Perceived Importance of Language Training among Refugees

Last registered on January 10, 2025
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Perceived Importance of Language Training among Refugees
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0013858
Initial registration date
January 08, 2025

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
January 10, 2025, 1:59 PM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country
Denmark
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Edith Zink
Affiliation
University of Copenhagen
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Mette Foged
PI Affiliation
University of Copenhagen, Rockwool Foundation Research Unit
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2024-10-17
End date
2025-02-28
Keywords
Behavior, Education, Labor, Welfare
Additional Keywords
refugees
JEL code(s)
J60, J24
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Learning the host country language is an important factor behind refugees' integration outcomes. At the same time, learning a new language can be very difficult and often refugees do not achieve fluency. Many factors enter the decision about whether and how much to invest in learning the language. In this project, we focus on beliefs about the labor market return to host country language proficiency. We, first, elicit the extent of misperceptions about these returns. Then, we provide an information treatment to half of our sample about the actual correlation between Danish proficiency and earnings among refugees in the Danish labor market. Lastly, we ask how many hours refugees would like to invest in learning Danish. This information experiment is embedded in an online survey that we run among Ukrainian refugees in Denmark (DARECO, wave 3). The survey is sent out and administered by Statistics Denmark. Once we close the data collection, Statistics Denmark spends 1-2 weeks preparing a pseudoanonymized version that we will get access to and be able to merge to population registers, including actual enrollment in language classes and labor market participation.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Foged, Mette and Edith Zink. 2025. "Perceived Importance of Language Training among Refugees." AEA RCT Registry. January 10. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.13858-1.0
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
This is an information experiment embedded in an online survey among Ukrainian refugees in Denmark.
The structure is the following:
1) Prior belief elicitation about the importance of Danish proficiency for earnings in the Danish labor market.
2) Information treatment*
3) Question about how many hours (per week) refugees would like to invest in learning Danish.
4) Posterior belief elicitation about the importance of Danish proficiency for earnings in the Danish labor market.*
*2) and 4) are only for the treatment group.
Intervention (Hidden)
The exact formulations in our survey questionnaire are:
1) How important do you think Danish language proficiency is for earnings in the Danish labor market? Please use the slider to indicate the importance. 0 indicates not important at all and 100 indicates extremely important.

2) Research shows a strong positive relationship between language proficiency and earnings. People who speak Danish at a higher level tend to earn more. The figure below illustrates the relationship between refugees’ Danish language skills and their earnings in Denmark. Refugees who are fluent (C1) earn double the amount of those who speak no or little Danish (A1).
--- Figure from: Mette Foged, Cynthia van der Werf, Access to language training and the local integration of refugees, Labour Economics,
Volume 84, 2023.
Figure note: The graph shows average earnings for different levels of proficiency in the Danish language (CEFR levels). For more information about the data used visit https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2023.102366.

3) Based on your current situation, how many hours per week would you like to invest in learning Danish? 0 means no time and 37 hours represent the equivalent of a full-time job.

4) We’ve provided you with some information about the relationship between Danish language skills and earnings in Denmark. Now, we’d like to know your updated thoughts: How important do you think Danish language proficiency is for earnings in the Danish labor market?
0 indicates not important at all and 100 indicates extremely important
Intervention Start Date
2024-10-17
Intervention End Date
2025-01-09

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
1) Question about how many hours (per week) refugees would like to invest in learning Danish.
2) Posterior beliefs about the importance of Danish proficiency for earnings in the Danish labor market.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
The primary outcomes are questions from our survey.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Actual enrollment and performance in language classes observed in register data.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
When data collection is concluded, our survey data will be made available to us together with population register data. This means that we will be able to observe actual language class enrollment, performance (completion of modules and final participation and grade in final exam), as well as other outcomes (e.g. labor market, other education, health) and socio-economics (e.g. residence, family status) for our sample.

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We will provide half of our sample with information on the returns of Danish proficiency in the Danish labor market. This information comes from:
Mette Foged, Cynthia van der Werf, Access to language training and the local integration of refugees, Labour Economics,
Volume 84, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2023.102366.

The survey is administered and run by Statistics Denmark. Half of the respondents received a survey link that includes the information treatment. 1-2 weeks after the data collection is concluded, we will get access to the survey responses and be able to merge them to the population registers.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Statistics Denmark randomly selected half of the sample to receive a survey link that includes our information treatment. This has been done by a computer.
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
21649 Ukrainian refugees
Sample size: planned number of observations
The survey was sent out to 21649 Ukrainian refugees.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
10824 in treatment group, 10825 in control group.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
According to Statistics Danmark, the response rate for our survey was 39.44% with 4,266 respondents in the treatment group and 4,272 respondents in the control group. With these number of observations we will be able to detect effects of 0.07 standard deviations in our standardized (mean=0, standard deviation=1) outcomes with a power=0.9 and a significance level alpha=0.05.
Supporting Documents and Materials

Documents

Document Name
Figure for information treatment
Document Type
survey_instrument
Document Description
This is the figure that we used for the information provision.
The introduction text was:
Research shows a strong positive relationship between language proficiency and earnings. People who speak Danish at a higher level tend to earn more. The figure below illustrates the relationship between refugees’ Danish language skills and their earnings in Denmark. Refugees who are fluent (C1) earn double the amount of those who speak no or little Danish (A1).

We added a note to the figure:
Note: The graph shows average earnings for different levels of proficiency in the Danish language (CEFR levels). For more information about the data used visit https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2023.102366.
File
Figure for information treatment

MD5: 960b38b9bb3be6d7e65deef330525a9e

SHA1: cf2ded95549fc2415231a0b07b51caf305aa19b2

Uploaded At: November 01, 2024

IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen
IRB Approval Date
2024-08-01
IRB Approval Number
N/A
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

Pre analysis plan

MD5: 7c7f71985f1dcc92189b5ca6b0154a2b

SHA1: 4c9c6c527e22d87c0d41c9108e16866c053588d7

Uploaded At: January 08, 2025

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials