Political Economy of Culture: Where Should President Obama Start: By Designing a Consistent language policy or on Imposing English Language as a Requirement to the Path of U.S. Citizenship?

Sun Feb 3 10:21:17 UTC 2013

Dear David,

I read your piece with interest, trying to understand the
rationale behind it, beyond the numbers of the Hispanic
population. Fact is, historically, Hispanics are the only ethnic group
immigrating to the U.S. that has resisted learning English. I'm not
sure why this is so, but it might be a good basis for some research if
it has not already been done or if it is not already in the works.

I'm not judging. I'm curious. In order to get decent jobs, immigrants
to any country in the world realize that they must learn the L1. If they
don't, they will always remain in low-level jobs, be isolated from  
society
at large, and will not be able to study at universities to let their  
talents bloom.

I'm not sure that legislation is the answer; this would have to be  
studied.
But common sense is. So rather than compelling people from above  
(government)
to learn English, it would seem more logical that people themselves  
would
want to learn the nation's common language if those people have a  
vision of a
better life that they feel they can achieve. I believe this has always  
been the
basis of every group's immigration everywhere in the world.

Perhaps after the U.S. gets its fiscal house in order, it could finance
an immigration program that includes ESL courses, thus giving people  
the option
to attend or not to attend. That way, people who do not want to learn  
the nation's
L1 would not be compelled to, but people who do, would have free  
lessons, say,
to get themselves to a B1 (intermediate) level (Common European  
Frameworks). People
who would like to get to an advanced level could do so either through  
self-study or
through community language programs.

Let us not forget that non-native speakers must take various  
standardized tests to
be admitted to many universities and colleges. I'm not sure if  
community colleges
require TOEFL, GMAT, SAT etc. So, the fact remains, David, that  
English is the nation's
L1 and the future of every immigrant who wants to better his life and  
the life of his
children resides in learning that L1.

Linguistically yours,

Myrna

Myrna Goldstein, B.S.J., MATESL
Founder, Director
Are You in Your English File?®
Second Language Learning Research Center
Eilat, Israel (formerly Milan, Italy)

Member:
TESOL
Linguistic Society of America
American Association for Applied Linguistics

e: myrnaenglishfile at gmail.com
Skype: myinmi
c:  ++972 053 525 5360

On Feb 3, 2013, at 2:35 AM, David Balosa wrote:

Political Economy of Culture: Where Should President Obama Start: By  
Designing a Consistent National Language Policy or by Requiring  
illegal Immigrant to Learn English as a Path to the United States  
Citizenship?
                                                                   By  
David Balosa
                                              University of Maryland  
Baltimore County, (UMBC)

         Spanish is currently spoken as a first language by  
approximately twenty-two million people
          in the United States. The Hispanics are currently America's  
fastest growing ethnic
          community and their numbers are set to rise to 96.5 million  
by 2050. This is not without
          problems as the United States does not have legislation  
which states that English is the
          official language of the Union; it has always relied on the  
desire of immigrants for social
          assimilation and mobility to consolidate the pre-eminence of  
English.
                                                                                             (Miranda 
  Stewart, 1999: 6-7)

In his address regarding "Fixing broken immigration system" entitled  
"Vision for winning the future" President Obama mentioned four key  
points which he calls accountabilities and responsibilities: 1.  
Responsibility by the federal government to secure our borders, 2.  
Accountability for businesses that break the law by undermining  
American workers and exploiting undocumented workers,
3. Strengthening our economic competitiveness by creating a legal  
immigration system that reflects our values and diverse needs, and 4.  
Responsibility from people who are living in the United States  
illegally. My question for discussion and my reflection will  focus on  
the president's point number 4. I think that the President plays too  
much politics here and that he is undermining the scholarship on the  
everlasting debate on language policy in the United States. Fixing  
broken immigration system is one thing, but requiring illegal  
immigrants to learn English as one of the requirements is tantamount  
to English-Only America movement. Until there is a coherent language  
policy, by coherent I mean agreed upon by the United States citizens,  
a unidirectional language requirement by federal officials, especially  
the president of the United States is getting out of the house through  
the back door. I am not saying that illegal immigrant should not learn  
English or Spanish, the point is that so far there is no legal basis  
to require any one to learn English for what so ever in the United  
States. If the President is going to initiative a path to language  
policy weather English or English and Spanish as official languages,  
then the United States will make a big step forward in solving big  
issues regarding intercultural relations. To clear understand my  
point, let's analyze the president approach to learning English as a  
requirement to illegal immigrant path to the United States Citizenship.

      One of the key requirements that the represent mentioned that  
illegal immigrants living in U.S. must fulfill to the path of U.S.  
citizenship is learning English. The president's statement reads: "  
Those people living here illegally must also be held accountable for  
their actions and get on the right side of the law by registering and  
undergoing national security and criminal background checks, paying  
taxes and a penalty, and learning English before they can get in line  
to become eligible for citizenship. Being a citizen of this country  
comes not only with rights but also with fundamental responsibilities.  
We can create a pathway for legal status that is fair and reflects our  
values." Wait a minute! Is Mr. President here trying to have his cake  
and eat it too? Since the president favorite sentence in this  
immigration debate is "We are a nation of law and a nation of  
immigrants", is the president telling us that English is going to  
become the fundamental language of American values? How about the 55  
millions U.S. Spanish -speakers? Do their language and culture also  
contribute to the American Values? Should U.S. citizens working for  
Univisions, Telemondo, UNI-MAS, etc. who may also contribute to the  
economic competitiveness of U.S. be required to learn English for U.S.  
citizenship?  According to Stewart (1999:6-7), "The Hispanics are  
currently America's fastest growing ethnic community and their numbers  
are set to rise to 96.5 million by 2050 (quoting, The Guardian,  
16.07.98)." Stewart observes that "This is not without problems as the  
United States does not have legislation which states that English is  
the official language of the Union; it has always relied on the desire  
of immigrants for social assimilation and mobility to consolidate the  
pre-eminence of English."
      During the 2008 Democratic presidential election primary debate,  
President Obama, Senator Obama at that time articulated, when he was  
asked by a CNN journalist weather English should be the Official  
language of the United States that, "We should not focus on issue that  
divide us, instead we should focus on how to fix our broken  
immigration system." It has been the politics of escape goat forever  
when it comes to regulating language policy in fair and realistic way  
in the U.S. President Obama, after winning 75 % of Latino votes  
without questioning weather they spoke English or not at the time they  
went voting now is suggesting learning English as a requirement for  
legal immigration status. If learning a language was an easy task,  
most college graduates U.S. would be speaking Spanish fluently. Since  
President Obama likes to look at fair game plays, would not t be a  
fair game to say all illegal immigrants must learn both English and  
Spanish as a requirement to citizenship?
      One may infers that requiring learning English alone is a  
support to English -Only movement. This approach undermines the  
substantial contribution of Hispanic culture to the values of the  
United States. The "Latinazization" (Benitez, 2007) of illigal  
immigrants may also be a valuable inference if we don't require  
illegal immigrant to learn Spanish as well. Will various English  
dialect speakers be required to learn American Standard English if  
that what Mr. President meant? The "World Englishes" (Mesthrie &  
Bhatt, 2008) as well as the world Spanishes (Stewart, 1999; Lorenzo- 
Dus, 2011) can only be used as requirement for national immigration  
legal status after they have been adopted as Official language of the  
nation. Otherwise they should not be mentioned in the fixing broken  
immigration system.

    In Conclusion, It is not only the immigration system that is  
broken, it is the entire public policy system that is broken. If Mr.  
President wants to start fixing this broken system of public policy  
the workable strategy would be looking at the policy of that public or  
social sector setting, fix it, that is, make it if it is a  
commonsensical argument and truly reflective of U.S. values, a law of  
the nation. Since thee is no federal law regulating languages in U.S.,  
it would  illegal to require a given language learning as a  
requirement to U.S. citizenship. Requiring learning English will sound  
like a cultural hegemonic strategy and  it will not reflect what the  
president calls "A smart 21st century" - a century of  people and  
communities cohesion by consensus, that is people decide their  
intercultural democratic rules of governance not bias policy makers.  
Either English alone or English and Spanish as co-official languages  
for the United States- why not create a referendum on this issue and  
stick to what the U.S. diverse population decide. It will make more  
sense after people will look at these two global languages - both  
spoken by significant numbers of legal U.S. citizens in the ballot and  
let the people decide. It is only after that referendum that all  
cultural groups will live with the decision weather they like it or  
not. Because it will become the law of the land. Leaving the issue on  
the policy makers whose bias attitude and cultural hegemony have been  
demonstrated through centuries will never lead the U.S. to the Smart  
21st century language policy. Should not a true vision for the future  
of the United States plan also for a language which the numbers of its  
speakers will reach 96.5 million in 2050? Should the U.S. language  
policymakers understand that a language policy that reflects the  
cultural reality of the country makes the country more prosperous  
economically and culturally? May be the example of Luxembourg, South  
Africa, Paraguay, and Switzerland will inspire us as we plan for a  
"smart 21st century". What do you think?

References

Benitez, C. (2007). Latinization: How Latino culture is transforming  
the U.S. New York: Paramount
      Market Publishing.
Donnelly, J. (2003). Universal human rights: In theory and practice  
(2nd. ed.). New York: Cornell
      University Press.
Lorenzo-Dus, N. (ed.) (2011). Spanish at work: Analyzing institutional  
discourse across the Spanish-
      speaking world. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Mesthirie, R. & Bhatt, R. M. (2008). World Englishes: The study of new  
linguistic varieties. New York:
      Cambridge University Press.
Stewart, M. (1999). The Spanish language today. New York: Routledge.

www.whitehouse.gov/issues/fixing-immigration-system-america-s-21st-century-Economy

-- 
*David M. Balosa*
*Doctoral Student, PhD Program in Language, Literacy and Culture (LLC)*
Research Focus: Intercultural Communication & Cultural Exchange
Interculturalists GSO President 2012-2013
*University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)
**1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250*

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