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Spanish Use is Steady Or Dropping in U.S. Despite High Latino Immigration

posted by mrpg on Saturday January 27 2018, @05:40AM   Printer-friendly
from the lo-siento-abuelos dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

English remains dominant language preference for immigrants to United States:

How can the Latino population be growing rapidly while Spanish-speaking remains stable? The answer lies in oft-overlooked peculiarities of census data and in the particular linguistic history of the United States.

If one looks only at immigration patterns over the past half-century, it is true that the U.S. has been gaining Spanish-speakers. From 1965 to 2015, roughly half of all immigration has come from Latin American countries. This trend added some 30 million people, most of whom came speaking Spanish, to the American populace.

But this is only half the story. While new immigrants bring Spanish with them, research shows that their children tend to become bilinguals who overwhelmingly prefer English. As a result, the same immigrants' grandchildren likely speak English only.

Linguists call this phenomenon "the three-generation pattern." In essence, it means that non-English languages in the U.S. are lost by or during the third generation.

We can see this pattern playing out in data from the Pew Hispanic Center. Surveys show that in 2000, 48 percent of Latino adults aged 50 to 68 spoke "only English" or "English very well," and that 73 percent of Latino children aged 5 to 17 did.

By 2014, those numbers had jumped to 52 percent and 88 percent, respectively. In other words, the shift from Spanish to English is happening nationwide, both over time and between generations.

If the preferred language is English, why do the immigrants refuse to understand common English terms like "taco," "burrito," "loco," and "amigo?"

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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Apparition on Saturday January 27 2018, @06:17AM (3 children)

    by Apparition (6835) on Saturday January 27 2018, @06:17AM (#628732) Journal

    Had the right idea.

    In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person’s becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American … There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag … We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language … and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.

    - Teddy Roosevelt, 1907

    [...] I want to see the immigrant know that he has got to spend a certain amount of his money in decent housing; that he will not be allowed to live on $2.50 per month board basis.

    Let us say to the immigrant not that we hope he will learn English, but that he has got to learn it. Let the immigrant who does not learn it go back. He has got to consider the interest of the United States or he should not stay here. He must be made to see that his opportunities in this country depend upon his knowing English and observing American standards. The employer cannot be permitted to regard him only as an industrial asset.

    We must in every way possible encourage the immigrant to rise, help him up, give him a chance to help himself. If we try to carry him he may well prove not well worth carrying. We must in turn insist upon his showing the same standard of fealty to this country and to join with us in raising the level of our common American citizenship.

    If I could I would have the kind of restriction which would not allow any immigrant to come here unless I was content that his grandchildren would be fellow-citizens of my grandchildren. They will not be so if he lives in a boarding house at $2.50 per month with ten other boarders and contracts tuberculosis and contributes to the next generation a body of citizens inferior not only morally and spiritually but also physically.

    - Teddy Roosevelt, 1916

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  • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 27 2018, @06:22AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 27 2018, @06:22AM (#628733)

    English was violently imposed on America, by invaders like the Roosevelts! Forcible imposition, I tell you! Imperialism! Racism! English out, now!

  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Saturday January 27 2018, @07:55AM (1 child)

    by DeathMonkey (1380) on Saturday January 27 2018, @07:55AM (#628754) Journal

    ... comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us

    Exactly! Freedom of religion, speech, assembly, all the very first amendment! That's what makes America great!

    It's wonderful how the government doesn't make them give up their religion, culture and opinions, isn't it?