English skills, earnings, and the occupational sorting of Mexican Americans working along the US-Mexico border

While English proficiency enhances labor marker outcomes, its role in minor ity-language regions remains largely unexplored. Employing the U.S.-Mexico border as a minority-language region, we analyze whether English skills dif ferently affect the earnings and occupational sorting of Mexican Americans along the border relative to their non-border peers. We find comparable Eng lish deficiency earnings penalties for Mexican immigrants, suggesting that this group responds to English-specific regional wage gaps. U.S.-born men, however, have a larger earnings penalty along the border, possibly reflecti ng natives' relative immobility owing to strong geographic preferences. Occ upational sorting exercises give credence to this interpretation for native Mexican American females.