For migrants moving to a European country, it is important to learn English, but to successfully integrate into the labour market and experience social integration, it is also essential to learn the local official language. This is stated in the recently published OECD skills overview Skills Outlook 2023: Skills for a Resilient Green and Digital Transition.

The chart shows the percentage of vacancies published in the official language(s) in individual European countries in 2022 and the percentage of vacancies published in English. This is based on the theory that job advertisements written in a particular language implicitly require knowledge of that language, even if this requirement is not explicitly stated in the advertisement.

Although English language skills are very useful for increasing the chances of finding work in many countries (including those where English is not the official language), data suggest that knowledge of the local official language is potentially even more important. In fact, 82% of job advertisements in the EU are written in the official local language of the country where they are published, compared to approximately 14% of job advertisements written in English.

In some countries, job seekers would find it particularly difficult to find work without knowledge of the local language. For example, in France, almost 98% of vacancies are written in French and only 1.66% of descriptions are in English. In Germany, approximately 96% of advertisements are in German, while only 3.38% are in English.

It is important to note that in many cases, English language proficiency is still required as a second language. Survey data shows that the local official language is generally the primary prerequisite for job seekers. This is confirmed by another study mentioned in the OECD report, which found that English language proficiency was the sixth most requested skill explicitly mentioned in online job vacancies in European countries in 2021, ranking behind the ability to adapt to change, teamwork, computer use, teamwork principles, and the use of Microsoft Office.

In Latvia, we very often encounter incomers who have lived here for 30 years or more and do not speak (or do not wish to speak) Latvian even at a level sufficient to maintain a simple conversation, despite having graduated from Latvian educational institutions. Conversely, people from distant and, by Latvian standards, rather exotic lands often learn Latvian within a few months. Why is that? The answer is that it all depends on attitude and a person's individual cultural level…