Bilingual caseworkers and on-the-job training: A pathway to integration?

We study an active labor market program aimed at immigrants with very limited language skills. The program consists of a three-month on-the-job training program in a regular workplace, facilitated by bilingual caseworkers speaking the participant’s native language. The aim of the program is to improve participants’ language skills and to provide labor market experience. We apply dynamic inverse probability weighting to account for dynamic selection into the program. After an initial lock-in effect, we find that the program leads to sizable increases in employment throughout the three-year follow-up period. These effects are explained by both subsidized and regular employment, and are mainly driven by women.