And 20% feel they don’t speak English “very well!”

Let the chattering commence:

“It’s very disturbing when 1 in 5 people is not communicating in the common language,” said Victor Davis Hanson, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. “Culturally, it creates a sort of tribalism. This country doesn’t have a predominant race or religion; it just has values. That’s a very thin bond. We have shared values and a shared Constitution; we also have to have a shared culture and language… When immigrants congregate in enclaves, they have a harder time learning English and becoming fully American… It’s time to go back to the melting pot, control the borders and let assimilation, integration and intermarriage work…”

Versus

It’s not that immigrants don’t want to integrate - it’s that they need more opportunities to learn English, said Jin Sook Lee, an assistant professor of education at UC Santa Barbara, who remembers the oversubscribed English-as-a-second-language classes she used to teach at community college…. “The fact that people speak a different language in their homes is one of the most untapped resources in our country,” Lee said. “With globalization in economics and politics, we need language competence. These speakers have a great potential to fill out this language gap in our society.”

Good points both, arguing from the two basic opposing perspectives on the still-simmering immigration debate (would you really expect less from two college professors?). They are both correct, more or less, but the split in opinion is a function of individual forecasts of prevailing politics in the next few years. Let me explain:

All research shows that immigrants are learning English at approximately the same rate as has been the norm throughout the history of the republic. Usually the 3-generation rule applies, with the 1st generation immigrants learning barely enough to get by, the 2nd generation being fully bilingual, and the 3rd generation typically being monolingual English speakers. Of course, there is great variation in this: Gov. Schwartzenegger is a handy example of a 1st generation immigrant who, despite a heavy accent, speaks English very well. There are also some groups that maintain their traditional language for freaky long times (e.g., my mother’s family, German Mennonites, came over in the 1600’s and only stopped speaking primarily German at home during WWI). The X-factor in the current immigration wave is the fact that continual replenishment of new immigrants in what has become the most prolonged immigration boom in this country’s history has simultaneously raised the profile of a single language besides English to an unprecedented degree, and has overwhelmed the rate of assimilation, resulting in a continuous growth of immigrant “enclaves.” Simply put, immigrants are coming in faster than they can be assimilated, and immigration opponents’ “doomsday scenario” is that we will eventually hit a “tipping point” wherein immigrant communities will decide en masse that there is no real benefit to assimilation as there will be plenty of goods and services offered in their own language nationally. Of course, no one can really agree as to where this tipping point would take place — to date, it’s just conjecture. There’s no need to point out that there are individuals who already reject assimilation — that just proves the fact that individuals do so, not entire immigrant populations. For every Aztlan-embracing, conspiracy-theory mongering person who bitterly rejects assimilation into the American mainstream (while continuing to demand access to its material benefits), many others proudly embrace citizenship together with its rights and responsibilities. Besides, America is rejected by some of its own sons and daughters (paging Ward Churchhill and Bill Ayers).

The real divide between the two sides comes in their conjecture on the future state of immigration. If immigration continues at the same rapid rate that we have witnessed for the last 20 years, and continues to outpace the forces of assimilation, then we will begin to fracture on ethnic/nationalist grounds. It’s the (oft unspoken) law of the world: distinct nations (re. ethnic/language groups) living together within the same country will eventually start to squabble. Imagine a headline that, say, “60%+ of all Americans speak something other than English at home.” It would necessarily mean a seismic cultural shift in the country. While the language teacher in me starts to swoon at the thought of so many bilinguals, the practical side of me looks at my birthplace (Canada) and does not wish that sort of nationalistic in-fighting on this nation. The flip side of the divide is to assume that current rates of immigration can not possibly continue unabated, whereupon one has to wonder what all the fuss is about. If immigration rates dip, and the country experiences a bit of a breather (which historically, it always has), then all present immigrants will be assimilated over the coming generations and this will all be a historical footnote. This is why last summer’s “amnesty wars” in the Senate and the House were so contentious and so important, because ultimately they proposal under discussion had the potential to cause the above headline to read nationally within 20-50 years. Of course, there are other intervening factors. The present economic downturn catastrophe is likely to put the brakes on immigration for a bit. Any serious efforts at enforcement against illegal immigration (I know, not bloody likely given the current two candidates for POTUS) would also have an effect. There was a noticeable drop here in AZ after the new employment laws went into effect this year. Any factor that deprives immigration of constant influx of “new blood” will reinvigorate assimilation. Ultimately, if immigrants view their livelihoods and well-being as being connected to the larger community — and not just an “ethnic enclave” — they will, by-and-large, embrace the English language and American culture just as previous generations have.

Via the San Fran Chronicle…  Dripping in hyperbole, yet interesting nonetheless…  It comes back to my old complaint that a small minority of people seem to think that once one arrives to the US, one should abandon ever speaking anything other than English…  Patently ridiculous…

Here’s what I don’t like. I don’t like it when busybody officials think that because they don’t like something, they have to outlaw it. I don’t like that language has become a proxy for the immigration debate and the anxiety that some people feel over a changing cultural landscape.

I don’t like it that some American teenagers barely speak proper English, much less a foreign language, and that they will eventually be outmatched in the global job market if they come up against someone from Europe, Asia or Latin America who speaks two or three languages. I don’t like that some of these same American kids resent the very notion of competition, and that English-only policies enable them by making everyone the same so that no one has a leg up because he knows more than one language.

I agree with the general sentiment, but the hyperbole tarnishes the facts in several areas.  First, language has not (in my opinion) become a proxy for the immigration debate, but has instead become one of its battlefields.  The vast bulk of immigration enforcement supporters are not simply mad because of multilingual “shoutouts” during graduation, or the whole “press 1 for English” thing, but rather they get upset because of the perception that we’re privileging one immigrant group over others by so widely accommodating them in their own language (you certainly don’t hear a “push 3 for Chinese”– though for my wife’s sake, I really wish we did), and while the author nails it on the head that research reveals that children are learning English and abandoning “the old language” at the same rate as any other time in U.S. history, the adult immigrants are not…  To be fair, we over-romanticize our own history.  Most G1 immigrants (i.e., “first-generation) have always had a less-than-perfect command of English — even after many years of U.S. residence.  Many immigrants, understandably nervous about their new surroundings, prefer to remain in “linguistic ghettos,” where they are surrounded by a community from their own country.  This was always been a natural inclination for many immigrants.  What some Americans worry is that, by providing so much home-language support at every facet of life, we inadvertently  ghetto-ize people by depriving them of the chance (and/or motivation) for full participation in society.  The road to upward-advancement in any country is not pretty…  It takes some hard work and you have to lay it on the line.  Immigrants have traditionally excelled in this regard, partly because it’s you’ve got to be pretty ballsy to start with to pick up your life and uproot to a foreign land.  Accommodation is usually undertaken out of an attempt to be nice and welcoming, but it can have the negative effect of depriving the immigrant of the motivation that he/she will need to attain the American dream…

Also, the author completely mischaracterizes the nature of all English-only initiatives.  None that I have ever seen have ever had anything bad to say about foreign language learning — in fact, most encourage such.  They also don’t discourage immigrants teaching their native language to their kids.  There is a conscious misportrayal of English-only advocates by their opponents as seeking to illegalize any sort of public — or even private — discourse in languages other than English.  That is simply slander of the first order, and is designed to equate English-only supporters to knuckle-dragging KKK-esque racists.  Aside from the David Duke faction, English-only supporters limit themselves to the arena of government services.  While some may disagree, there is a pretty strong argument to be made that there is no real reason for (non-emergency) government/civil services to have to be provided in any language other than English.  The most common (and most damning) example is ballots…  If general English proficiency is a requirement of citizenship, why, indeed, do municipalities have to spend such obscene amounts from the public coffers on FL ballots which largely go unused?  At root, the English-only supporters are making an economic argument (i.e., let’s save some money here!).

It’s only once they get into the arena of education that it becomes a cultural argument.  Here, the argument becomes a lot more tenuous, and thus more hostile, on both sides.  The problem: both immersion and bilingual education work — but on different populations and for different reasons.  English-only supporters will note that one of the primary goals of public schooling is to instill a common set of values and culture in children — i.e., the whole “E Pluribus Unum” thing…  Bilingual ed. supporters point out that research indicates that kids actually learn better if initially grounded in subject matter (particularly literacy concepts) in their own language before transitioning to English.  Both systems have their success stories — and their horror stories…  I always feel semi-idiotic in having to point this out, but it certainly seems that the major variables involved are not so much teaching methodology, but instead the individual learners and teachers themselves…  Simply put, different kids respond to different teaching styles…  Some teachers suck…  Some kids come from such horrible backgrounds that no type of education is going to yield results until their more basic needs are met.  Etc.  Until we can put some flexibility in the system, we’re going to remain at an impasse with two sides yelling at each other, and not much listening happening…

Sounds fair…  You’d get similar, if not better, language instruction as you would in public schools.  Plus, many kids (note: not all) would have some significantly increased motivation for studying something that relates specifically to them and their own background.  Also, the State Dept., Defense Dept., etc., who are literally begging people to learn non-traditionally-taught languages, will be veeeeeeeeeeery happy…

It’s not just the land of Lord of the Rings…

Good thoughts on how languages build barriers between people.  It’s interesting that author recounts being yelled at for not immediately approaching the saleswoman in Mandarin… 

I found the woman struggling with her answer in English. Having earlier heard her speak with another customer in Chinese, I repeated the question again in Mandarin.  But instead of an easy answer, what I had to face next was a telling off by the salesperson for not using Mandarin despite knowing it. The woman, who said she was from Beijing, equated it to my lack of pride in being Chinese.

All too common, really, and not just Chinese people.  Being a heritage speaker, or even someone of similar ethnic extraction as the TL community who learned the TL as a second language seems fraught with this type of peril.  Life becomes a guessing game of sorts, trying to figure out which language to approach each person in in order to avoid minimize offense.  I had an Asian-American friend in Japan who had roughly the same level of Japanese as me (advanced, communicative, but still not gonna pass as a native very often).  Despite our similar speaking levels, the reactions we provoked, however, were very different.  While my Japanese was met with constant astonishment and praise because noone expected someone who looks like me(read: “honky”) to speak Japanese, my friend was often treated like an idiot because she wasn’t immediately recognizable as a foreigner. 

Our identities are in no small way tied up in the language(s) we speak, and this can cause confusion all around when the “sound and picture are out of sync,” so to speak.  While this may seem strange to people from multi-ethnic communities, to most of the world, native language and ethnicity are still virtually synonymous.

Read the CA Congressman’s op-ed here.

My take….

• on H.R. 3727: Giving commensurate compensation to employees whose job description involves bilingualism — makes sense.  We pay for the skills people use on the job.  Language fluency is certainly no exception.
• “I believe effective integration is a two-way street. The faster we embrace new communities, the faster they become Americans.”  In general, yes.  Excluding new members of society for whatever reason delays assimilation and breeds discontent.  If you want to guarantee a disaffected minority, start excluding them from general participation in public life based upon racial/ethnic/cultural/linguistic grounds.  That said, there is a line in the sand that we should draw.  The current multiculturalism demands straightforward acceptance of other cultural beliefs as being of equal value.  Laudable in sentiment as this is, it is actually counterproductive towards assimilation to not expect immigrants to work at assimilation to the culture at large.  One can not expect the larger culture to assimilate to the newcomers (which, at its essence, is what some of the extreme views of multiculturalism lead inevitably towards).  While we must be patient and realistic in our expectations for 1st generation immigrants, who, depending upon their own personal narratives and abilities, may never fully integrate (or master the language, for that matter), we should reward attempt with inclusion.
• Yes, every immigrant needs to learn English, but they should not shed their language in the process. Contrary to what anti-immigrants argue, I know Vietnamese, Filipino, Indian, Latino and Chinese children in my district who have actually lost their family’s native tongue. When they grow up, they would be better equipped to carry out business relationships south of the border or in the Pacific Rim, had they kept their native languages. This would be even more important if they went on to help shape global U.S. policy.  Right on!  While immigration is actually a losing proposition (economically) to the U.S. in the short term (i.e., the first generation of immigrants tends to consume more in public resources than they contribute to the economy), their children make up for the parents’ shortfall and then some.  Children of immigrants have been essential to trade facilitation since the country’s founding.

So says a Quebec language advisory board.  This is the type story that I’m sure a lot of my colleagues would point to and say, “You see!  Likewise, one can’t force US immigrants to learn English” – to which they’d be completely correct.  You can’t forceanyone to learn anything that they don’t want to.  However, immigration policies should ideally favor those potential immigrants who are most likely to want and try to integrate.  The desire to retain your own unique national character is not racist — it is merely part of human nature.  For those who suggest that to expect immigrants to try to integrate into the culture of their newly adopted home is racist, I have one question: is it also racist for immigrants to practice their own culture in the new land?  Seriously…  You can’t call one racist without decrying the other, because they both spring from the same thought.  Both the immigrant and the native are both engaging in a form of cultural chauvinism in assuming that what they do is “the way to do it” (and often the “best” way).  Both hold their own beliefs/values/practices to be more reputable.  So why don’t we every hear about the “racism” of those who move to another country and then publicly reject or even renounce its culture, language, and traditions?  Hmmmm…

Still, for disclaimer’s sake, the Quebec situation is a bit more complex than simple immigration woes.  While there are certainly immigrants everywherewho just don’t quite get the hang of the language of their host nation, the situation in Quebec is complicated by the side-by-side existence of English and French in Quebec.  Many new immigrants to the region (who are native speakers of a third language) are attracted to English study more than to French.  This is often simply practical, as many of them will have studied English for years in compulsory education before immigrating, but can also sometimes reflect the thought of English as the more commercially powerful tongue.  That, my friends, is why Québécois politicians want to foster compulsory French classes on immigrants via the Quebec identity act.

More from the Arrogant Polyglot.

Back when I was 17, I made a tough choice between studying Russian and studying Japanese.  Contrary to every bit of advice I got at the time (the USSR had just dissolved, and everyone was convinced that Russia was the new commercial goldmine), I went with Japanese.  Boy, am I ever glad of that…

Outside of Russia, only one percent of ethnic Russian children learn the language.  Even in Israel, with a one million strong community of native Russian speakers, only 10% of the children are learning the language from their parents.

The solution: Adding a Russian Program at Marshall University!!! (just kidding.)  A campaign by President Putin to encourage Russian preservation amongst the Russian diaspora…. 

No, says the Denver Post. While I’ve heard a lot of doom-sayers out there who contend that we are slowly being converted into an Spanish-speaking nation, and while, even though I speak Spanish, I too find the “press 1 for English…” thing too aggravating for words (I think I’m mostly bothered by anything that makes me have to listen to voice recordings any longer than I have to), the evidence is overwhelming that Spanish speakers are assimilating every bit as fast as every other generation of immigrants. As the Post points out, “fully two-thirds - 64.8 percent - of second-generation young people indicated that they prefer to speak English only” (and, quite frankly, one has to wonder about the circumstances of that other 35.2%). As I’ve pointed out before, there are two X-factors that drive the current perception of non-assimilation. The first is the dragged out nature of this immigration wave, which continuously brings new immigrants in. The casual observer simply notes that he/she is always surrounded by people who seem unable/unwilling to speak English, but day-to-day and year-to-year these are different people. In certain sectors of the economy — especially the service sector — it may seem that you are forever ordering your Whopper from someone who can barely pronounce the word, but in a nutshell, what happens is that as new immigrants solidify their language skills, they can move into higher (less visible) jobs, and they are immediately replaced with someone newer to the country and language. The other X-factor, which could well have an actual effect on overall assimilation is that a lot of the current wave of immigration is coming from a neighboring country, encouraging immigrants to keep closer ties with home. Even amongst those who cross oceans to get here, improved telecommunications and cheaper air travel have the same effect. While this author has yet to see any definitive studies on whether or not these phenomena have had any negative effect on the assimilation of 1st generation immigrants, it has been fairly well debunked that there is any effect on their kids. As the article says, “when it comes to language, ‘The assimilative power of American society is overwhelming,’ wrote Ruben G. Rumbaut and Alejandro Portales, professors of sociology at the University of California-Irvine, and Princeton, respectively.” This does not mean we won’t see changes — especially in the educational domain. Witness the effects that are already being noted in places not exactly renowned for being hotbeds of immigration like…. Ohio????

So why do we suddenly see Spanish everywhere — on TV, on billboards, in restaurants; and why the annoying phone “press 1 for English?” These phenomena merely jump out at us because they are new. Such technologies and mass advertising didn’t exist during the last immigration wave. Still, it bears noting that scholars will point out that, at the beginning of the 20th century, NYC was flooded with Italian-language adverts and newspapers. Some areas of the midwest had defacto German-language villages and towns until the first world war. Other language communities have always existed in the U.S., and always will. We should not be surprised if businesses try to make money advertising their services to them…

The second part of the article — about the perils of the U.S. being a “linguistic graveyard” at the dawn of the 21st century are well-deserving of a separate article. We’ll hit on that tomorrow.

I’ve discussed this at length before.  Many immigrants get frustrated and defensive when they see their children and grandchildren struggling to communicate in the “old language.”  It’s not just Hispanics — I’ve heard the complaints from people of all origins (including U.S. parents bemoaning their kids losing regional accents –seriously).  This can also be a source of confusion and frustration for those kids/grandkids who become completely assimilated, as their ethnic community will often treat them as retarded and/or outcasts for not being able to speak “their” language.  While it’s a natural phenomenon to assimilate more to the place where you grow up than to outside cultural ideals foisted by your parents, language is so closely tied to our personal identities, that it is only natural to feel a little defensive over the issue.  Heritage language preservation programs are gaining traction in the U.S. – especially in Hispanic communities. 

My feelings on such are mixed.  On one hand, I do encourage the broader dissemination of language study — and if one has an ethnic/emotional tie to the language, that will aid in learning (by increasing motivation — there’s no truth to the sometimes claims that certain races learn certain languages better).  Still, on the other hand, I part ways with many of my colleagues in not believing multiculturalism to be an unqualified good.  Cultural and linguistic assimilation are essential components towards building a national identity that is based upon an ideological framework, as opposed to a racial/ethnic identity (which is the prevalent model in the world).  Thus, for the U.S. to exist as a united country composed of varying people groups, there have to be common factors of culture and language to unite us.  I fear (and with good reason, seeing the division that multicultural ideals have wrought elsewhere) that if heritage language programs become mandatory, or even de facto in ethnic communities, that we will be sowing the seeds of division, by making people attend more to differences in ethnicity, as opposed to the ideologies that unite us… 

A great piece by WaPo covering the questions and concerns many Americans have over our ability to assimilate newcomers. As I said here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, today’s immigrants are assimilating at the same three generation rate as their forerunners throughout the history of the U.S. “By the third generation, it’s over. English wins. Even among Mexicans in Southern California,” said Rumbaut, whose research has found that more than 95 percent of third- and later-generation California Mexicans prefer to speak English at home.”

Still, illegal immigration acts as an X factor: “Thirty percent of immigrants are here illegally, about double the rate 15 years ago. Illegal status limits economic mobility and public benefits. Fear of being deported — particularly as tensions boil over illegal immigration — means “you’re not likely to go out and integrate much beyond what you must,” said Michael Fix, co-director of the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy.”

Also at issue: the convenience of travel and communication increases ties to the homeland, and allows immigrants to better “keep one foot planted” in their native soil. A lot of the traditional institutions on the American landscape which encouraged immigrant assimilation (such as labor unions) are gone as well.

It’s well worth tracking for the next 50 years, because, well, we’re dealing with a lot of new factors in the current immigration wave. Overall, the two biggest factors contributing to successful assimilation are 1) legal immigration (simply being able to participate in all venues of American life without looking over one’s shoulder); and 2) learning English. The government can certainly aid in the first point: increasing border and interior enforcement, while cutting red tape and creating new visa programs to allow people to come legally (note: blanket amnesty would do nothing, as the current illegal residents would be quickly replaced by a new wave of people hoping for the same auto-legalization). While the government can certainly try to help with second point (via funding ESL classes and materials), this will have to be controlled at the community level, and (like all learning) will be completely dependent upon the learners themselves.

Quote of the day: “If you live in America,” Orellana said, “you have to be American.”