They Take Our Jobs! by Aviva Chomsky

Author:Aviva Chomsky
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Beacon Press

MYTH 13

TODAY’S IMMIGRANTS ARE NOT LEARNING ENGLISH, AND BILINGUAL EDUCATION JUST ADDS TO THE PROBLEM

The long waiting lists for available ESL (English as a Second Language) classes and the overwhelming trend for English to predominate among the second and third generations of immigrants from Latin America belie the common belief that new immigrants are reluctant to learn English. In many ways, the language patterns of today’s immigrants are similar to those of earlier generations: older immigrants find learning the new language extremely difficult, and sometimes unnecessary, while the younger generation quickly realizes that English is essential and becomes fluent rapidly. By the third generation, the language of the immigrant’s homeland tends to be lost.1 Often third or fourth generations will study their grandparents’ native language in school to try to reconnect with their heritage.

In some ways, though, today’s situation is different, and some of these differences have led to misconceptions about what today’s immigrants are really doing, especially with respect to learning English.

Many of those who came to the United States from Europe a hundred years ago planned to work hard for a few years and then return to their homelands. Those who carried out this plan rarely learned much English. But for those who ended up staying longer and establishing families here, English came to predominate within a generation or at most two.

This pattern, which prevailed from the 1870s through the early twentieth century, shifted in the decade between 1914 and 1924. The migrant stream was interrupted, in both directions. The First World War and the increasingly restrictive U.S. immigration laws led to a significant reduction in transatlantic travel. This meant that immigrant populations and their cultures ceased to be nourished by a continuing influx, and that immigrants who were here had to give up their hopes of returning home. At the same time, anti-foreign (and especially anti-German) propaganda and Americanization campaigns created further pressures for immigrants to abandon their native languages. Multilingualism came to be replaced by English monolingualism.

Both the past and the present of Latin American immigrants are somewhat different. First, the history of Latin Americans in the United States is one of forcible incorporation as well as immigration. Mexicans and Puerto Ricans were conquered by the United States. Conquered peoples have historically been more marginalized, and more reluctant to give up their cultural heritage, than voluntary immigrants. Many Native American populations, for example, have maintained their languages for hundreds of years after conquest. Likewise, Puerto Ricans resisted the intensive Anglicization campaign that sought to replace Spanish with English on the island in the first half of the twentieth century.

Although the history of conquest and forced incorporation of Spanish-speaking peoples into the United States in some ways structures the experiences of contemporary Latin American immigrants, it’s not the only factor that makes their experience different from that of earlier European immigrants. The other major difference is that geography, technology, and immigration patterns keep cross-border ties much more alive for today’s Latino immigrants. Their homelands are closer, they

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