Today’s Topic

One of the most powerful images in our folklore is that of the destitute and downtrodden immigrant arriving in the United States in search of the American dream.

Through hard work and determination, the immigrant finds a job, a place to live, a school to send the children. Above all, the immigrant learns English and eventually assimilates into the American way of life.

To many of today’s immigrants, those images are merely an out-dated myth. Moving to the United States, for them, means the search for a better life without forfeiting the traditions of their homeland.

When the Supreme Court last week let stand a ruling that allows employers to insist that their bilingual employees speak only English, many immigrant groups were furious.

In today’s Platform, representatives of some of those groups discuss their feelings about being denied the right to express themselves in their own language on the job while advocates for a common language argue that English unifies people in the workplace.

The issue is especially acute in Los Angeles where, according to the 1990 census, almost 50% of the city’s residents speak a foreign language at home. The Los Angeles Unified School District reports that roughly 44% of its students in 1992-93 had limited proficiency in English. And the Orange County Department of Education reports that 27% of its students had limited proficiency in English in 1992-’93.

The debate over how to accommodate such large numbers of foreign-language speakers is an old one. Should students be taught only in English? Should we have multilingual signs, forms, driver’s licenses and election ballots? What is the function of government when it comes to language?

To some, the answer is simple. Government and the schools should not be involved.

“We’re not advocating total assimilation,” says Stanley Diamond, chairman of the California English campaign. “But, fundamentally, if someone is here, they should accept the responsibilities and duties that go with citizenship. What comes with that is speaking our language.”

In addition, some argue, it would be impossible to accommodate the needs of all the groups that speak foreign languages. “If one group has the right (to special signs or forms), every other language group has the right,” says Fred Casmir, a communications professor at Pepperdine University who emigrated from Germany at age 19.

“That becomes an impossibility,” Casmir says. “If we are going to build a society together that has some kind of feeling of security, we are going to have to have something in common. And that is language.”

Yet, language also gives ethnic groups a commonality that is important to identity and self-esteem.

“My language defines who I am,” says Liz Guillen, a staff attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. “When you’re in an environment where your language is viewed as socially deficient, that can have a negative impact. On children, it is devastating.”