Why does language matter for child health?
CHE RESEARCH BITES
By Daniel Auer and Johannes Kunz
04 August, 2025
Good health at birth lays the foundation for future wellbeing, yet children born to migrant mothers often face disadvantages from the very start. A recent study examines how an often-overlooked factor—whether mothers can communicate easily with local health services—shapes infant health.
In Switzerland, refugees are assigned by chance to different regions that speak German, French, or Italian. For mothers from French- or Italian-speaking countries, this random placement means they may end up in areas where they can either communicate well or struggle to make themselves understood.
The study shows that when mothers are placed in a region where they speak the same language, their babies weigh, on average, 72 grams more at birth—a meaningful difference that reduces the risk of low birth weight. These gains appear even though families have similar income, employment, and length of pregnancy, suggesting that better access to information and services is the key factor.
The results hold when taking into account whether mothers have access to other people who speak their language or to doctors who do. While these supports help, they do not fully offset the disadvantage of not sharing a language with local services.
The findings highlight that being able to communicate with healthcare providers has real, lasting effects for both mothers and their children. Without it, families face barriers that can reinforce social disadvantage well beyond birth.
Policies that place refugees without regard to language ability may miss an important chance to support integration and healthy development. Matching families to regions where they can communicate, or providing interpreters, tailored health information, and language support for expectant mothers, could help reduce early inequalities and improve outcomes over the long term.
Auer D, Kunz JS. Communication barriers and infant health: the intergenerational effect of randomly allocating refugees across language regions. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy. 2025 Aug 1;17(3):71-106.
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CHE Research Bites are short, easy-to-understand summaries of our recent academic papers highlighting new evidence and insights on topical issues in the health and healthcare sectors.
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