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unusualmusic_lj_archive) wrote2008-04-08 03:38 pm
unusualmusic_lj_archive) wrote2008-04-08 03:38 pm
Immigration Myth: All those Spanish immigrants won't learn to speak English!
Rubén G. Rumbaut and Frank Bean, both sociologists at the University of California, Irvine, and Douglas Massey, a sociologist at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School decided to conduct a study to test that hypothesis.
See: Linguistic Life expectancies: Immigrant Language Retention in Southern California (PDF)
Conclusion: By the third generation, in the most dense Hispanic immigrant community in the US, (Southern California, Hispanic immigrants don't speak Spanish anymore.
California Progress Report sums it up:The surveys asked respondents to rate their level of fluency in their native language and to identify the predominant language used at home. Those that responded “not verywell” and “English” respectively were categorized as “linguistically dead” in terms of their native tongue. The authors used these responses to derive “survival curves” of linguistic retention among immigrants--recording the fall-off in the degree to which immigrants and their descendants are able to speak their mother tongue and actually do so. These survival curves yield language “life expectancies,” or the average number of
generations a native language can be expected to persist.
The authors found that although the generational life expectancy of Spanish is greater among Mexicans in southern California than other groups, its demise is all but assured by the third generation. Third-generation immigrants are American-born with American born parents but with 3 or 4 foreign-born grandparents.
In the second generation, fluency in Spanish was greater for Mexican immigrants than for other Latin American groups, and substantially greater than the proportions of Asian immigrants who could speak their mother tongue very well. In the third generation, only 17% of Mexican immigrants still speak fluent Spanish, and in the fourth generation, just 5%. The corresponding fourth-generation figure for white European immigrants is 1%.
In short, as the study authors point out, the United States still its reputation as a language graveyard.
Also, blogger Manolo on the Toosense blog, who brought my attention to the study, points out that I’m sorry, but no ethnic group has completely assimilated. Other than language, which Latinos are losing just like any other group, every ethnic group has maintained some of their native culture. At my college graduation there were bagpipes leading the ceremony. That's what this country is about, acculturation. It's time we stopped labeling people as "other" and started a path towards intelligent immigration reform.
In addition to that, he conclusively proves yet again that those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it:P.S. Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN)...Bachmann also compared the situation on the border to the Israel/Palestine conflict, saying “the argument that fences don’t work doesn’t hold water. Look at Israel and Palestine. Fences work.”
...
Walls that have not worked:
Great Wall of China
Berlin Wall
Bastille
Walls of Rome
Walls of Jerusalem (several times)
He might have also added that the point of the Israeli wall was to stop Palestinian militants from harming Israel. As we can see, that hasn't worked. Come to think of it, our Congresswoman was ridiculously ignorant of the recent past, as well. After all, the wall between Eygpt and Gaza went down at the beginning of 2008, at the height of the Israeli blockade of Gaza, because desperate Palestinians in need of food and other necessities blew it up with the help of Hamas Sure, the wall went back up in a couple of days. But what makes her think that it can't go down again? Or that the same thing can't happen to a wall built in the US?
See: Linguistic Life expectancies: Immigrant Language Retention in Southern California (PDF)
Conclusion: By the third generation, in the most dense Hispanic immigrant community in the US, (Southern California, Hispanic immigrants don't speak Spanish anymore.
California Progress Report sums it up:The surveys asked respondents to rate their level of fluency in their native language and to identify the predominant language used at home. Those that responded “not verywell” and “English” respectively were categorized as “linguistically dead” in terms of their native tongue. The authors used these responses to derive “survival curves” of linguistic retention among immigrants--recording the fall-off in the degree to which immigrants and their descendants are able to speak their mother tongue and actually do so. These survival curves yield language “life expectancies,” or the average number of
generations a native language can be expected to persist.
The authors found that although the generational life expectancy of Spanish is greater among Mexicans in southern California than other groups, its demise is all but assured by the third generation. Third-generation immigrants are American-born with American born parents but with 3 or 4 foreign-born grandparents.
In the second generation, fluency in Spanish was greater for Mexican immigrants than for other Latin American groups, and substantially greater than the proportions of Asian immigrants who could speak their mother tongue very well. In the third generation, only 17% of Mexican immigrants still speak fluent Spanish, and in the fourth generation, just 5%. The corresponding fourth-generation figure for white European immigrants is 1%.
In short, as the study authors point out, the United States still its reputation as a language graveyard.
Also, blogger Manolo on the Toosense blog, who brought my attention to the study, points out that I’m sorry, but no ethnic group has completely assimilated. Other than language, which Latinos are losing just like any other group, every ethnic group has maintained some of their native culture. At my college graduation there were bagpipes leading the ceremony. That's what this country is about, acculturation. It's time we stopped labeling people as "other" and started a path towards intelligent immigration reform.
In addition to that, he conclusively proves yet again that those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it:P.S. Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN)...Bachmann also compared the situation on the border to the Israel/Palestine conflict, saying “the argument that fences don’t work doesn’t hold water. Look at Israel and Palestine. Fences work.”
...
Walls that have not worked:
Great Wall of China
Berlin Wall
Bastille
Walls of Rome
Walls of Jerusalem (several times)
He might have also added that the point of the Israeli wall was to stop Palestinian militants from harming Israel. As we can see, that hasn't worked. Come to think of it, our Congresswoman was ridiculously ignorant of the recent past, as well. After all, the wall between Eygpt and Gaza went down at the beginning of 2008, at the height of the Israeli blockade of Gaza, because desperate Palestinians in need of food and other necessities blew it up with the help of Hamas Sure, the wall went back up in a couple of days. But what makes her think that it can't go down again? Or that the same thing can't happen to a wall built in the US?
no subject
My best friend can speak it but from what I've gathered from her, if she has kids I doubt they're going to be the best speakers of it.
Although, a LOT of parents speak only Spanish to their younger kids and don't bother teaching their kids English. They figure that they'll learn it in school. Personally, I think the language will last longer (at least in South Florida) than people think. Places like Sedanos and Navarros still make money for a reason.