Language Policies Of The And The Background Behind Those Policies

People wouldn’t like Japanese, Chinese, Italians, Irish, etc. As for assimilation, many people come to this country with no intention of ever becoming Americans. They want to be known as Americans. A lot of the immigrants didn’t want to pay taxes or learn English, except work at a really low wage and steal jobs.

Language is not the only factor affecting the assimilation of people into American society, but one?s traditions also have an effect on the willingness and on the degree to which one assimilates. Some people have found that certain customs they have are not accepted in American culture and might

In Milton Gordon’s, “Assimilation in America”, theorizes that there is a “3” stage process of assimilation; acculturation (cultural assimilation), integration (structural assimilation), intermarriage (marital assimilation). However, it is actually 7 stages, but for simplicity will refer to as 3 stages. The overall process seems to follow the theory of Anglo-conformity, in which immigrants “assume the desirability of maintaining English institutions, the English language, and English-oriented cultural patterns as dominant and standard in American life” (265).

In the article, Speak Spanish, You’re in America!: El Huracan over language and Culture, Juan Gonzalez, a journalist and broadcaster of the daily show, Democracy Now, describes how bilingualism has impacted the United States’ modern education system. He describes an amendment that would constitute English as the official in the United States, which he believes can be a potential threat to the educational system. Gonzalez suggests that instead of having an amendment that constitutes English as the national language, American schools should implement Spanish to highlight the importance of being bilingualism in the American educational system. A constitutional amendment declaring English as the national language would be damaging to bilingual students because it would limit their capability of communicating in English or their native language, and therefore they have would fall behind in classes and will not succeed in the American educational system. To highlight the importance of bilingualism, even more the educational system should implement a variety of languages.

In order for assimilation to occur a minority group becomes an integrated part of the majority group; this assimilation results in non-distinguishing of one group from another by cultural characteristics. In order for this process to be complete, it must entail, not only an active effort by the minority group to shed all distinguishing actions and beliefs, and also complete unqualified acceptance of that individual by the dominant society.

It is expected that ultimately there will be a loss of ethnic distinctiveness for immigrants in the U.S., meaning the lack of attachment to the country of origin. (Golash-Boza, 2006) It is argued that all ethnic distinctiveness will no longer exist by the seventh or eighth generations. Before exploring the influence of foreign born vs. U.S. born parents on their children’s cultural assimilation; the different theories of assimilation will be explored. The idea of Assimilation came about in the early 20th century. (Golash-Boza, 2006) Assimilation is surrounded by two theories, the first that all immigrants will assimilate sooner or later and that the generational status of the individual is one of the main factors in determining the

According to Huntington, unlike previous immigrants, Hispanics wish to retain a dual culture. This presents them with the culture clash of two varying views on culture as well as education. There are several factors that have made this culture of immigrants assimilations’ so much different than the past immigrants that America has so fondly welcomed with open arms. These include contiguity, scale illegality regional concentration, persistence and historical presence.

Imagine. Can you imagine being part of a culture within a country that supported assimilation of your people? That your rights and freedoms were taken away, your land was taken and you were given parcels to live on, removed from your sources of food through hunting and fishing and not supported by the government that stole it from you? Finally, when you feel there is nothing else the government can do to you, they take away your children, sending them to residential schools. Leaving the children helpless, the parents feeling powerless and generations later, an apology is made by the government

For immigrants in America, two radically different choices of culture exist. First, the immigrants can choose to stay loyal to their ancestral roots and deny mainstream culture. Instead of contributing to the melting pot of opinions present they isolate within themselves by refusing to learn both the English language and American culture as a whole. Because they cannot communicate with a majority of the population, they don’t maintain any amount of control over American ideals including both politically and socially. The second opportunity available would be to embrace this new found culture, no matter how foreign it is to them, and develop a sense of unity with America. If immigrants wish to break the currently controlled system of power and privilege in America and truly become a part of American customs, they must learn to assimilate culturally.

An article written by the author, Linda Chavez a commentator, and a radio talk-show host. Chavez said that the government should the encourage assimilation of immigrants in the United States, and to put in place special consideration to immigrants who learn English, and to those who wish to enter the military, I agree with the author that assimilation of immigrants should be encouraged in America to immigrants who are learning English before the green card, and to those who wish to go to the military as this will benefit them economically, culturally and civically. The author analyzed a research conducted by Jacob L. Vigdor, a Professor from the University of Duke which focused on economic, cultural and civic assimilation. Chavez made a comparison to see if

The second classroom I observed was a first grade class of twenty-five students. Students in this class were all of Mexican descent and labeled as early intermediate English language learners. The

Huntington explains that a lot of the founding principles of the United States, such as freedom from oppression, and the formulation of the government were based on the majority cultures, which were white Europeans. Following the creation of the country, millions of people have flocked from the four corners of the globe in order to live in a nation of freedom and understanding (Huntington 1). It is thus the white originator culture which has allowed the United States to become a melting pot. However, Huntington proclaims that this unique identity is being threatened by the large amounts of Hispanic people who are becoming a part of the United States. Without assimilation into the larger culture, the ever-increasing number of Hispanics will likely become so numerous as to divide

“Parents force schools to speak English--only”, it sparks the audience's’ attention by the title alone. Focuses on schools managing their parents’ expectations for their children to get into a good college and get a good education. Discusses how people and or parents of the students who sought the need for a common language to be taught through all the schools in the state of California. Additionally, it discussed and elaborated how that many of the teaches that taught the bilingual programs, were not certified for the job. Therefore, the end of the bilingual programs in schools, brought change to the California school system, that even reflects in the present day about education in

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).

The concept of cultural pluralism suggests that immigrants should assimilate to American culture by enriching American traditions with those that other cultures bring with them, expanding the American cultural landscape of art, cuisine, education, history, law, music, language, medicine and other aspects of life.