| Language has not only practical applications,but also a human capital effect.China is a big country with multiple languages.The role of Mandarin as an official language is self-evident,especially in the context of a large-scale entry of migrant workers into the labor market.The first thing migrant workers will face after entering the city is how to deal with the relationship between “native” and “foreign”.Only by using a common language can migrant workers and cities form a community.Common language headed by Mandarin can help migrant workers to search for information and build social networks so that migrant workers can identify their own abilities and identity and gain collective recognition.Although the existing conclusions usually show the positive impact of language on labor income,the analysis is mainly based on the analysis of language skills in listening,speaking,reading and writing.There are few literatures to measure language skills from the perspective of dynamic assessment and “learning by doing”.On the other hand,the value of language skills of migrant workers is the sum of their personal value and social value.Measuring the return of using Mandarin for migrant workers is usually only based on their individual characteristics and living environment,but hardly considering the impact of joining enterprises.What is worse,there were very few researches working at the enterprise level.Moreover,due to the complexity and diversity of the migrant workers group,the correlation between the skills and wages of the migrant workers with different characteristics also needs to be identified.In addition,the discussion of the influence path of Mandarin skills can also be used as reference for better social integration of migrant workers.Therefore,on the basis of combing and analyzing the existing linguistics,language economics and other literatures,the development of urbanization in China and the current situation of language use of migrant workers,this paper uses Mandarin skills as an entry point to test the impact of the human capital effect of Mandarin skills on the income of migrant workers and the possible path of influence using first-hand data of enterprise labor combined with the econometric method.This paper also conducts the test on the robustness of the return of Mandarin skills from the enterprise perspective,and studies the difference in rewards for Mandarin skills by distinguishing the migrant workers’ groups.Through the analysis of the results,this paper verifies that the Mandarin skills of migrant workers have a significant positive impact on the wage level of 8.65%,and the impact on endogenous problems is still significant.This paper also conclude that the income of migrant workers depending on the situation of the enterprise.Based on the analysis at the enterprise level,it shows that the average human capital of the Mandarin skills of the enterprise has a return of 15.5% per capita monthly income,which verifies the conclusion above.Through the comparison of heterogeneity,the study shows that Mandarin skills have significant positive incentives on the wages of migrant workers with different characteristics,but the impacts are different.For some groups of migrant workers,such as Guangdong migrant workers,native migrant workers,migrant workers in management positions,and migrant workers who have changed jobs,the rate of return is high within the group.In addition,the research on the impact path finds that Mandarin skills can play a role in influencing migrant workers’ career prospects,social skills,and work tasks.Finally,based on the overall situation of the research,this paper puts forward relevant countermeasures and suggestions for improving the skills of migrant workers in Mandarin,enhancing the economic strength of migrant workers,improving the quality of migrant workers’ urbanization integration,and enhancing the life satisfaction of migrant workers.This paper also explored and analyzed uncovered areas for further study in the future. |
