The Bilingualism Penalty and Poverty: The Effect of Language Composition on Earnings in Suriname

Abstract

This thesis is the about the effect of language composition on poverty incidence as well as on wage rate in the context of Suriname. The research aims to identify what effect the of the languages one speaks has on income in the context of Suriname. This was done by analysing data from the 2022 Suriname Survey of Living Conditions conducted by the Inter-American Developing Bank. The results indicate that bilingual Dutch and Indigenous language speakers are at a disadvantage in comparison to the monolingual Dutch speaking counterparts. This means that there is a necessity for language policy in the role of poverty alleviation to ensure more effective and egalitarian poverty reduction outcomes.