<html><head><title>Fluency in English advances migrants</title></head><body>This article was mailed to you by: <b>Francis Hult</b><br>The sender included this message:<br><br>Click to <a href="http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_3750720">View this Article</a><p><font size='3'></font><p><center><font size='5'><b>Fluency in English advances migrants</b></font></center><p><font size='4'></font><br><font size='2'>Conor Friedersdorf, Staff Writer <br>San Bernardino County Sun<br></font><P><font size='3'><!-- body start -->In 1918, Teddy Roosevelt told the Kansas City Star
that "every immigrant who comes here should be required within five
years to learn English or leave the country.'' <p>
All these years later, the immigrants he referred to have produced
descendants who speak fluent English, don't realize their
great-grandparents didn't, and overwhelmingly think that today's
newcomers should learn America's language as soon as possible.<p>
A recent Fox News poll found 78 percent favor establishing English as
the official language of the United States. That's not surprising: Large
majorities favor English-only education in public schools and
English-only ballots during elections, too.<p>
Sure, English-language advocates sometimes take their Anglo zeal too
far. There isn't anything wrong with Mexican parents teaching their kids
two languages, or a Vietnamese family conversing in their native tongue
while waiting in line at the supermarket.<p>
It is important, however, that Mexican parents and Vietnamese
families speak the language of our presidential elections, congressional
debates and Supreme Court arguments.<p>
And it's important that their children speak the language of our
economy. Those who lack English-language skills are far more likely to
be unemployed or to remain at low-wage jobs throughout their lives.<p>
Amid these realities, I often hear Americans lamenting that today's
immigrants no longer want to learn English. That overstates things.
Immigrant enclaves surely exist where few residents speak our language
or try very hard to learn it. But similar enclaves have existed for most
of U.S. history.<p>
Meanwhile, so many current immigrants are trying to learn our
language that classes designed to help them along are full.<p>
In Massachusetts, roughly 17,000 people are on the waiting list for
Operation Bootstrap, a community program that teaches immigrants
English. In 2003, three Houston English as a Second Language programs
counted 12,000 non-English speakers on waiting lists.<p>
"Nationwide, about 1.1 million people were enrolled in
state-administered ESL programs in 2004," the Associated Press reports.
"The U.S. Department of Education, in a yet-to-be-published study,
estimates 28 percent of adult-education programs (home to many ESL
courses) had waiting lists in 2001-2002."<p>
Normally, a large government program is the worst solution to any
social ill, but education is an exception, and immigrants who want to
learn English but languish on waiting lists seem like sounder
investments than some other taxpayer-funded educational expenditures.<p>
Even if it costs too much to get every immigrant who wants to be
there into an ESL class, can't we broadcast classes on public-access
television, send them out over radio waves and stream them onto the
Internet? Can't we print a list of handy vocabulary on the back of the
green card? Can't we convince Telemundo to broadcast English subtitles
on the bottom of the screen?<p>
Let's create a culture of learning English, one in which native
speakers appreciate how difficult that task can be and aid newcomers
through formal and informal means. <p>
Sure, there are charities and government programs now doing just
that. The scale, however, is inadequate, and even a few thousand senior
citizens willing to practice conversation with young immigrants, or a
few hundred professionals willing to donate their time teaching
immigrants how to write in English, would go a long way. <p>
Any fluency gains made will be multiplied across generations as
parents who improve their English raise children fluent in the language.<p>
In contrast, the failure to help willing newcomers learn English will
echo across generations. Such shortsightedness would be typical of a
system that too often establishes the wrong incentives for immigrants,
failing to encourage desirable behavior or, even worse, encouraging
undesirable behavior. <p>
Legal immigrants jump through absurd bureaucratic hoops. Businesses
that hire immigrants legally pay considerable fees and fill out reams of
paperwork. Meanwhile illegal immigrants bypass the system, competing for
jobs by taking them away from those insistent upon complying with wage
and labor laws. They are rarely punished for their transgression.<p>
As any parent, schoolteacher or corporate-tax attorney knows,
incentives matter.<p>
If we make legal immigration enough of an ordeal, we'll get less of
it. If illegal immigration is relatively painless, we'll get more of it.<p>
And if immigrants continue to have a tough time learning English,
fewer will attain fluency. Isn't that what we're supposed to be afraid
of? So what are we going to do about it?<p>
Conor Friedersdorf manages The Sun's blog on immigration issues.
The blog, designed to provide a forum for opinions and information on
immigration, is at <a href="www.beyondbordersblog.com">www.beyondbordersblog.com</a>.<!-- body end --><p>This e-mail was initiated by machine [10.148.8.5] at IP [10.148.8.5].</font></body></html>