Using longitudinal data on immigrants in the Netherlands for the years 1991, 1994, 1998,
2002, we examined the impacts of social contacts and Dutch language proficiency on adult
foreign-born men’s earnings, employment and occupational status. The main conclusions are
as follows. On average, social contacts and a good mastery of the Dutch language enhance
immigrants’ economic performances. The effects are stronger for immigrants with low-skilltransferability
than for immigrants with high-skill-transferability, and are stronger for economic
migrants than for non-economic migrants. Contact with Dutch people and Dutch
organisations unambiguously enhances all aspects of immigrants’ economic performance,
however, we found no evidence for the positive effect of co-ethnic contact on employment
status
