You've no doubt heard how Hispanic
immigrants aren't assimilating, how they're defiantly refusing to learn English, and how
this is so unlike previous waves of immigrants, who couldn't wait to jump into the melting
pot.It's a popular belief. It's also untrue. For one
thing, it's a myth that earlier waves of immigrants were in a hurry to assimilate.
There was resistance - especially to giving up one's language. It's also a myth that
Hispanics aren't assimilating now. There are countless studies that say so.
One of the most recent comes from the Pew Hispanic
Center, a Washington-based research institution. It reports that while only 23
percent of first-generation Hispanic immigrants say that they're fluent in English,
the figure grows to 88 percent in the second generation. By the third generation,
it's as much as 94 percent. And whereas half of the adult children of Hispanic
immigrants speak some Spanish at home, the percentage falls to a quarter or less in
the generations that follow.
This should all
sound very familiar. It was the same way with previous immigrant groups. The first
generation, for the most part, retained the native language and spoke just enough
English to get by. With every generation, however, there was more English spoken -
and less Italian, Russian, German, etc. And once the Americanization process had run
its course, there was always Berlitz for those who wanted to recapture some of what
was lost. For now, let's take a deep breath. The melting pot is working as well as it
ever has, and this magnificent country still benefits from a level of cultural
diversity that is the envy of the world.
