BY STUDENT
It can be seen from US
population statistics that the Mexican immigrant population as increased at a
very fast rate since 1965 as seen by the immigrant and population statistics.
In the 1970s 640,000 Mexicans immigrated to the US and that number jumped to
2,249,000 in the 1990s. In 2000, Mexicans made up 26.7 percent of the US
foreign born population in the US. As a whole, Hispanics constituted 12 percent
of the total US population in 2000 and between 2000 and 2002 that number jumped
almost 10 percent (Huntington, 2013). The majority if these immigrants flood to
the major cities of the US in search of jobs to create new lives and to support
their families. Inevitably, the influx of Latin-American born immigrants
increased the number of people of this ethnicity in the school systems as the
fertility rate of these immigrant groups is much higher than native born
citizens (Huntington, 2013). These statistics offer information for these basic
questions: Does the influx of Spanish speaking citizens into the US give good
incentive for introducing dual language programs for all students within the US
education system? And, should Spanish become the second official language of
the United States?
It has become more prevalent in
many schools to offer dual-language or at least bilingual programs within the
US (Huntington, 2013). In 2000 it is
estimated that by 2050 Hispanics will make up twenty five percent of the US
population and that number will likely increase in the years following (Huntington,
2013). Today, the projection for the number of Hispanics that make up the US
population by 2050 is twenty-nine percent. There are many benefits of dual
language programs. Students are able to achieve a high level of proficiency
within their elementary years. Bilingual individuals perform better on
cognitive tasks such as pattern recognition, problem solving, and divergent
thinking. Bilingual speakers are more marketable job candidates. Students within
these programs are able to interact with speakers whose first language was
either Spanish or English (“Dual-Language Program”). Immigrants whose original
language was Spanish will feel more welcome and less intimidated integrating
themselves into the US education system if these programs were to be
implemented especially in the cities where most of the Spanish speaking
immigrants.
I have to question however, why
Hispanics are having a hard time, or maybe aren’t as willing, to learn English
like so many other immigrant groups. The only palpable difference is that there
are more of them. The first thing that most other immigrant groups do when they
arrive, if they hadn’t done so already, is learn English. My conclusion is that they don’t feel the need
because they live in culturally centered Spanish groups and the issue is not as
pressing. In any case, many employers are preferentially hiring bilingual
individuals as opposed to candidates that only speak English (Huntington, 2013).
This is the direct result of the increase in the number of individuals that
interact with employees of many businesses that work with the public. As an
incentive, those individuals that are hired because there are able to interact
in both languages are paid, on average, more than monolingual individuals. As a
result, political debated have occurred as to whether Spanish should be made an
official language of the US. This would take time however, because English
isn’t even an official language. If that were to happen though, all political
figures, educators, and employees in the business pool would need to be fluent
in both Spanish and English (Huntington, 2013).
Huntington,
Samuel P. "Foreign Policy Magazine." Foreign Policy.
N.p., 1 Mar. 2013. Web. 01 Nov. 2013.
Dual Language Program." Los Angeles Unified School
District. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Nov. 2013.
This is a really interesting topic to me. I wrote my final paper on Hispanics moving to the suburbs and I found a lot of reading on how lots of white suburban people are almost disgusted by the use of Spanish in their neighborhoods. In the documentary we watched in class (9500 Liberty), people complained that the use of the Spanish language in their neighborhoods was creating a decreased quality of life for them. One thing that also stood out to me was Samuel Huntington's belief that allowing Spanish as our country's second language will create such conflict that it will replace the more traditional black/white tension that has been famous in our country. Even though this country once celebrated it's "melting pot" tendencies, it seems like people are afraid that Spanish will have too much influence on the overall culture. So it is interesting that you brought up numbers because maybe it is the shear number that people worry about. Maybe people fear their culture and voice will be overruled by Hispanics. On the other hand, I do think a lot of the debate over the Spanish language has racial undertones and that some people are simply opposed to any minority related infiltration of culture.
ReplyDeleteThat is a really interesting point you brought up. The occurrences in the movie 9500 Liberty are a good example of real life reactions as a result of having similar view points as Samuel Huntington. Though, I personally don't agree with his view that the infiltration of the Spanish culture into our society will create conflict or the view by the people that the use of Spanish in their neighborhood is disgusting. I do feel however, that though we are a large country, and it is hard to generalize, that many Americans are hypocritical on their stand points. They love this country because of the freedom it up holds and because of the cultural diversity but they abhor the idea of the regular use of Spanish.
DeleteYour comment about how "they love this country because of the freedom it upholds" caught my attention. It seems hypocritical that America boasts about being the land of the free yet are the very ones limiting this so-called freedom. I come to the conclusion that America is the land of the free for some. I agree with you Deborah.
DeleteThis blog post really caught my attention because it made me rethink the points brought up in Huntington. In my opinion one of the most beautiful things about the United States is the diversity, the differences among people that eventually unite this country. Spanish speaking minority groups are the widest minority group, making some area of the United States minority-majority areas. The arguments over creating dual language programs brought up by Hungtinton really frustrate me. Being an immigrant to the US myself I had to adapt and learn the English language in order to be able to be educated and be able to be a part of society. I am not the only immigrant that does not speak Spanish; there are people from all over the world that come to America in order to have better education, better opportunity and overall better lives. Would that be fair for those non-English speaking people to worry about both English and Spanish? This question is a difficult one. I personally think it is not fair-because standardized tests and most official documentations are in English (and also because English is a hard enough language to learn). But at the same time in reading this post and the article it makes me question how the population will look in the future. As the Spanish speaking population increases it seems like sooner or later Spanish will become an equally spoken language in the US as English…So would it be smart to prepare ourselves by learning Spanish now?
ReplyDeleteThere are many things this country has avoided facing regardless of the evidence. An example of this is getting off fossil fuels and moving to more sustainable energy sources. There are many people in the world who think we can't make such a dramatic change. This has resulted in remaining steadfast in our countries motives. We are just barely getting to the point where small changes are being implemented. I found when researching this that a small number of schools have implemented dual language programs. This however, is only a small number. Preparing ourselves now is the smartest thing to do but it is unlikely that the people who have the power to change this will actually be willing to make the change.
DeleteI feel a blanket mandatory learning of any language would be wrong. The most common languages should absolutely be included in schools, if you are interested in learning them. If a certain language is necessary at your workplace, there should be some way implemented into that job for employees to learn the language, or choices provided to the applicant. Many Americans struggle to speak and write English properly; another language would cause more problems than it would solve. Miscommunication is one of the largest issues in businesses -- having worked in several small jobs and hearing stories from my parents, incorrect punctuation, typos, and poor grammar cause an astonishing amount of problems.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to be employed at a place that requires you to know Spanish, you better learn how to communicate in Spanish. I see language requirements being no different than any of the other requirements. For a crude example, you are not going to get a job at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory without some knowledge of rocket science -- likewise, you are not going to be employed in a trade company if their main buyers speak Spanish as their first language. It is not a forcing of culture, but rather the requirement of a certain skill set to accomplish the goal you want.
Perhaps a reason why Latinos do not integrate as quickly to English in the United States is because many immigrants who come to America do not immediately attain jobs where it is necessary to learn English, such as manufacturing jobs or domestic work. Consequently, once they get here, their main goal is to make enough money to support some kind of household for their families and food. Often, their kids also take on the burden of bringing in revenue for the household which can overpower the need to learn English and go to school.
ReplyDeleteYou did an impressive job stating Samuel Huntington's argument on Mexican immigrants and their refusal to assimilate and learn English. You also ask a great question about why, unlike previous immigrants, do these Mexican immigrants not go to learn English immediately. It's an interesting question and like you said there are more of them but you can certainly speculate as to other reasons. Now i'm not saying other immigrants lack pride in their own home country but it seems Mexican immigrants make sure to heavily practice their home countries' culture and part of that culture is speaking their language.
ReplyDeleteHannah B
ReplyDeleteThis blog post points out a pressing issue in US politics right now. Hispanics are immigrating to the US in greater quantities than ever before and us as a multicultural national must accommodate them. This post brought up that fact that when Spanish speakers get here, their first priority is not to learn English and in my opinion it’s because they don’t necessarily have to. With their overwhelming numbers, Hispanics are becoming just as prominent in this country as English speakers. As stated, many companies are now looking to hire bilingual employees to accommodate Spanish speakers. What implications will this have on the zeitgeist in the US? Many as we saw in the movie “Farmingville” will protest and react violently to this change. However, we must remember that American culture is and has always been a melting pot of many cultures. Hopefully we can take this challenge and learn how to make it a positive rather than a negative experience.