English And Speak English At Home Than The Overall U.s. Foreign Born Population

Dubbed the ‘melting pot,’ the U.S. is known for its diversity in cultures stemming from the thousands of immigrants who came during the days of Ellis Island and those that continue to immigrate here. The cultural diversity all throughout the United States is apparent through many factors. For example, the US Census Bureau projects that more than 300 languages are spoken in the United States, all of which broken into four categories; Spanish, indo-european languages, asian and pacific island languages, and a category labeled other that contains languages like hungarian and arabic. Additionally, according to the American Community Survey, immigrants and their children born in the U.S. constitute 26 percent of the population, a significant amount. Of course that percentage is also on top of the fact, that virtually all American citizens are descendants of immigrants, on either side or both. Logically, it's impossible to culturally assimilate to a country that is defined by its lack of one concise

This situation is relative to real life instances of immigration, as those moving to America with the hopes of improving their own lives and the lives of their family members are, in some cases, unfamiliar with the English language. Therefore, they must somehow learn the ways of the new people surrounding them in order to be accepted in this environment and also be able to communicate with others so they can attempt to obtain jobs to support themselves and family. Understanding the same language clearly plays an important role in assimilating to new surroundings.

Language is considered a vital tool in the construction of someone’s identity and an expression of culture. English is the most widely spoken language in the world. The number of people who speak it as a second language is increasing dramatically. In the last couple of decades immigrants have chosen to make the United States their home, but some proceeded with caution by slowly adapting to the English language and culture. Others don’t want to learn and adapt to the English culture simply because they believe it will separate them from their own cultures and traditions. Therefore, the question struggling to be answered is, should English be the official language in the United States?

Increased population in the United States began in the 18th century. Today, a previously stated, this ethnic group is the 2nd. largest minority and will, by the year 2050, comprise over 24% of the population. Currently, this population largely resides in California, Miami, New York, New Mexico, and Texas. The attitudes and belief systems of the second and third generations that did not experience immigration is by far different. These generations are far more assimilated and less insular with their cultural heritage and appreciation intact, mostly. “Understand that Hispanics/Latinos are assimilating to prevalent U. S. culture, but they are not, and probably never will be, fully assimilated. Instead, theirs is a path of acculturation. It is a process of integration of native and traditional immigrant cultural values with dominant cultural ones (Sonderup, 2010)” (et. Al 2008). There is a “differentiation of U. S. born and non-U. S. born (et. Al 2008).” Acculturation and assimilation is advanced due to these generations being bilingual. Statistics show that “Two-thirds of Hispanics ages 16 to 25 are native-born Americans. That figure may surprise those who think of Latinos mainly as immigrants. But the four-decade-old Hispanic immigration wave is now mature enough to have spawned a big second generation of U.S.-born children who are on the cusp of adulthood. Back in 1995, nearly half of all Latinos ages 16 to 25 were immigrants. This year marks the first time that a plurality (37%) of Latinos in this age group are the U.S.-born children of immigrants. An additional 29% are of third-and-higher generations. Just 34% are immigrants themselves (pew research center: Hispanic Trends,

America has influenced and has been influenced from different points of view. Immigrants may find American culture confusing and different from theirs. Adapting to a new culture is difficult but necessary in order to feel more comfortable in the environment they live in. Even though Americans are known for wanting materialistic objects, focusing on the future is more important to achieving success. Immigrants should focus on being economically stable before focusing on what they want to buy. Assimilation takes time to get used to because having to adjust to different diversities takes patience. Immigrants usually come to America to become more successful so in order to do that they need to prioritize what is more important. It is their new homeland and it will take time to adapt to it. Learning the English language is essential to becoming successful. Being bilingual will provide the immigrants with more opportunities in their daily lives. It will make their transformation much easier. According to Munoz, “It was simultaneously the language of the white population and a path toward the richer, expansive identity of American” (Munoz 308). Munoz is saying that knowing the English language will give immigrants more paths to go down. It will provide them with tools to becoming a more successful and richer

Issues revolving around immigration are dominating the current political debate. In addressing these issues, politicians and other elected officials are forcefully orchestrating the way that immigrants become to know and embrace American culture, thus a crucial part of assimilation. Current practices of assimilation rely on dated research that stresses the importance of jobs, education and language immersion. However, as stated by Mary C Waters, there is a “disconnect between the public debate and findings of scientific research” (11). This disconnect stems from the fact that the practices that once worked for the first generation immigrants are not effective for the new so called second generation. Alejandra Portes and Mihn Zhou in “Should Immigrants Assimilate” and Mary C Waters in “Debating Immigration” address the weaknesses as well as strengths of modern day assimilation in their writings.

America has long enjoyed a steady flow of immigrants from all walks of life. One of the most prominent groups to join the “The Great Melting Pot” in recent times is Mexican immigrants. In 2013, the Pew Research Center estimated that about 11.7 million immigrants from Mexico were living in the United States. Of these, “About two-thirds… arrived in the U.S. in 1990 or later.” (Gonzalez-Barrera and Lopez). Unfortunately, Mexican immigrants have not received that warmest of welcomes from a good number of Americans. Many in the United States have expressed concerns that Mexican immigrants pose a threat to “Americanism” (Gans, Replogle and Tichenor 399). Specifically, there is apprehension over use of the Spanish language by immigrants instead of the dominating English language, even though America has no official language (Cummins 128).

Societal stressors are defined as factors that capture the discrimination and difficulties associated with being undocumented, including the fear of deportation and possible separation from their kids (Arbona et al., 2010; Perreria et al., 2006). When looking at the research done on acculturation, very few studies looked specifically into societal factors affecting undocumented parents. The studies that did look at societal stressors focused solely on discrimination and its effects on immigrants. Knowing the English language for immigrants is not just about having the language skills, but also being linguistically integrated into the U.S. since there are sets of social requirements, laws, and propositions that enforce the acquisition of the dominant language (Leuck and Wilson, 2010). When using the National Latin and Asian American Study (NLAAS), Leuck and Wilson (2010) found that language acquisition is seen as an enforced civic duty. For immigrants, keeping their ethnic language often is devalued and seen as a threat by society and thus they experience greater language based discrimination (Leuck and Wilson,

Every year, millions of immigrants come to America from around the world. The range of diversity makes up America. America’s way of living is based on traditions that have been passed down by our ancestors from generation to generation. Immigrants are seeking change and opportunities that they may not have had in their own country. Even in today’s society, almost every immigrant faces challenges upon arriving in America. One conflict is the language barrier, having a different accent, and getting used to speaking English. Another problem is obtaining a job or finding a home without any documentation. Many immigrants face issues while securing employment and have to tackle language barriers after arriving in America. Immigrants faced similar

Education is one of the best ways to help immigrants to assimilate to their new country; in way that the faster they can learn the ways of the new country, the faster they can become a part of it. An immigrant’s children, if they even have any, need to be able to speak and read in English in order to attend classes and learn the material, as well as making friends. According to the Robert Wood Foundation, most immigrants would say that their lacks of English related skills are a major barrier to improving their life or social standards. Most school systems have what they call ESL classes, English

In the recent past, U.S. public education has strongly rejected conserving and maintaining the native language and cultural values of immigrant children, with the objective being indoctrination- achieving unity through uniformity. However, when integration

For decades immigrants had assimilated to the American society, something that had keep the ever-changing American community together. However perhaps assimilating isn’t always the answer as various individuals fight against the American traditions and stereotypes and exceed the expectation of their minority groups. Even within minorities there is a type of peer pressure to assimilate to the American ways. In How to Tame a Wild Tongue by Gloria Anzaldua. The author explains that identity is intertwined by the way people speak.

There are some, however, that do not agree with this assertion. Samuel Huntington, a political scientist, disagrees with the idea that immigrants are assimilating. He thinks that out nation is becoming “two peoples and two cultures” (Huntington pg. 1). Huntington claims in his article “The Hispanic Threat” that immigrants are not assimilating language and do not have patriotism. He focuses on the majority immigrant group in the United States, Hispanics, and explains how “in 2000, more than 28 million people in the United States spoke Spanish at home, and of those 28 million, 13.8 million spoke English worse rather than very well” (Huntington pg. 5). Huntington, and others who share his beliefs, think that as Spanish culture and language increases in the United States, the more committed Hispanics will be to their ethnic identity, not assimilating to the Anglo-Protestant culture America was built on (Huntington).

I can’t express enough about the life of an immigrant in the United States. There's many reasons of why not knowing English can be a major obstacle for most people that face, coming to the United States. The major obstacle of someone not knowing English is that they cannot communicate with others that talk to them in English, its difficult to have a job or even secure a job, and learning the language itself. “More than 35 million adults in the United States are native speakers of a language other than English.” (U. S. Census Bureau, 2001) and there’s about 23 percent that people know a little or nothing at all of English. In the journal I read it said “16 percent “not well,” and 7 percent “not at all.” (Day and Shin, 2005)

Learning native language is a common problem among new immigrants. New immigrants try to get melted into their new communities and maintain their own culture at the same time. They try to speak in native language to their children most of the time at home to help them speak it fluently. “Immigrants whose children were born in the native country reported the strongest desire for their children to learn and maintain the native language compared to those whose children were born either in the United States or in another country”( Mucherah 196). If first generation children do not practice their native language at home, they will start losing vocabularies, and having a heavy accent and difficulty to understand the language. Children will find it easier to speak English than their native language because they practice English all the time with friends, at school, watching TV and doing homework. English will become their native language and their parents’ native language will disappear with