The Effects of Ethnicity, Language Skills, and Spatial Segregation on Labour Market Entry Success in Estonia

This article studies jointly the effects of ethnicity and proficiency in host country and minority languages for labour market entry in areas with different ethnic concentrations. The focus is on Estonian ethnic majority and Russian-speaking minorities in three Estonian regions with varying ethnic concentrations. Data from Estonian Labour Force Surveys (2002-2011) are used to compare the duration of unemployment before finding the first job and the status of the first job for post-first generation Russian-speaking minorities and young Estonians of the ethnic majority. The results show that the effects of ethnicity and language proficiency depend on region. Although high proficiency in the Estonian language increases labour market success for ethnic minority youth, a Russian-language environment seems to reduce the negative effect of poor skills in the Estonian language to some extent. Spatial segregation also affects labour market entry for Estonians because knowledge of the Russian language has some value for finding a job in areas with a high concentration of Russian-speaking ethnic minorities. Only in Tallinn, where the size of ethnic communities is almost equal, do the Russian-speaking minorities experience an ethnic disadvantage.