Immigration & Language Diversity in the United States

Immigration&LanguageDiversity intheUnitedStates

Rub?nG.Rumbaut&DouglasS.Massey

Abstract: WhiletheUnitedStateshistoricallyhasbeenapolyglotnationcharacterizedbygreatlinguistic diversity,ithasalsobeenazoneoflanguageextinctioninwhichimmigranttonguesfadeandarereplaced bymonolingualEnglishwithinafewgenerations.In1910,10millionpeoplereportedamothertongue otherthanEnglish,notablyGerman,Italian,Yiddish,andPolish.ThesubsequentendofmassimmigrationfromEuropeledtoawaningoflanguagediversityandthemostlinguisticallyhomogenouserain Americanhistory.Buttherevivalofimmigrationafter1970propelledtheUnitedStatesbacktowardits historicalnorm.By2010,60millionpeople(a?fthofthepopulation)spokeanon-Englishlanguage, especiallySpanish.Inthisessay,weassesstheeffectofnewwavesofimmigrationonlanguagediversity intheUnitedStates,mapitsevolutiondemographicallyandgeographically,andconsiderwhatlinguistic patternsarelikelytopersistandprevailinthetwenty-?rstcentury.

RUB?NG.RUMBAUTisProfessor of Sociology at the University of California,Irvine. DOUGLASS.MASSEY,aFellow ofthe American Academysince 1995, is the Henry G. Bryant Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University. (*Seeendnotesforcompletecontributor biographies.)

Contraryto whatsome Americansseemto

believe, the United States historically has been a polyglot nation containing a diverse array of languages.Atthetimeofindependence,non-English Europeanimmigrants madeupone-quarterofthe puloaptiuloantisopno;kienPGeernnmsayln.v1aInina,atdwdiot-i?oftn,hsanofutnhkenpoowp-n butpresumablysigni?cantshareofthe new nation'sinhabitantsspokeanAmerican-Indianor Africanlanguage,suggestingthatperhapsone-third or moreofallAmericansspokealanguageother thanEnglish. WiththeLouisianaPurchasein1803 (whichdoubledthesizeofthecountry),theTreaty of1818 withBritain(whichaddedthe Oregon Country),theAdams-On?sTreatyof1819withSpain (whichgaveFloridatotheUnitedStates),andthe Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgoin1848 (which acquirednearlyhalfof Mexico),tensofthousands ofFrenchandSpanishspeakers,alongwith many moreslavesandthediverseindigenouspeoplesof thosevastterritories,wereaddedtothelinguistic

?2013bytheAmericanAcademyofArts&Sciences doi:10.1162/DAED_a_00224

141

Immigra-mix.2TheadditionofAlaskaandHawaii inwhichimmigranttonguesdieoutand

LDaivnetgirusoiantgye&wteoeulntdhfoclelnotwurby.eforetheendofthenineUSintintatetedhseilanAtnltghehuaoeigugeghhtdeicevonentrqshiutaeynstdicnnlietnaehrteleyeUpnltnaihtyceeeddntaSutrraoitleeess, hasbeendrivenprimarilybyimmigration.

arereplaced by monolingual English. Althoughethnicidentitiesmaysurvivein someformintothethirdandfourthgenerationsorevenbeyond,immigrantlangAumaegriesca.g5eTnehirsalldyemsiusfefeorcceuarrslynotdebaetchasusien

GermansandCeltsenteredinlargenum- ofanimpositionorcompulsionfrom

bersinthe1840sand1850s,followedby outside,butbecauseofsocial,cultural,eco-

ScandinaviansaftertheCivil Warinthe 1870sand1880s,andthenbySlavs,Jews,

nliongmiuic,stiacncdodemmmuognirtaiepshtichechmasenlgveess.6wBitashiedn

andItaliansfromthe1880stothe?rst onanextensivestudyofAmerica'shis-

decadesofthetwentiethcentury. Ac- toricalexperience,sociologist Calvin

cordingtothe1910census,whichcounted Veltmanconcludedthatintheabsenceof

anationalpopulationof92 million,10 immigration,allnon-Englishlanguages

millionimmigrantsreporteda mother tongueotherthanEnglishorCeltic(Irish,

wraopuilddlye.7ventuallydieout,usuallyquite

Scotch, Welsh),including2.8 million Therevivalof massimmigrationafter

speakersofGerman,1.4millionspeakers 1970spurredaresurgenceoflinguistic

ofItalian,1.1millionspeakersofYiddish, diversityintheUnitedStatesandpro-

944,000speakersof Polish,683,000 pelledthenationbacktowarditshistorical

speakersofSwedish,529,000speakersof norm.Thepostwarperiodinwhichtoday's

French,403,000speakersofNorwegian, olderwhiteAmericanscameofagewas

and 258,000 speakers of Spanish.

likelythe mostlinguisticallyhomoge-

Linguisticdiversitybegantowanewith nouserain U.S.paredto

thecessationofmassEuropeanimmigra- whatcamebeforeandafter,however,it

tion,whichendedabruptlywiththeout- wasanaberration.Thecollectivememory

breakof World WarIin1914.European ofthosewhogrewupbetweenthe1940s

immigrationrevivedsomewhatafterward, and1970thusyieldsafalseimpressionof

butthenlapsedintoa"longhiatus"during linguisticpracticein America.Froma

whichflowsweretruncatedbyrestrictive lowof4.7percentin1970,thepercentage

U.S.immigrationquotas,aglobaldepres- offoreignbornrosesteadilytoreach12.9

sion,asecondworldwar,andultimately percentin2010, muchclosertoitshis-

tofhietmraminsgfroatriomantiroatnhoefrtEhuraonpeeimintgroaatizoon.n3e

torichighs.Inthisessay, weassessthe effectofthesenewwavesof massimmi-

Asaresult,thepercentageofforeignborn grationonlanguagediversityintheUnited

fellsteadilyintheUnitedStates,drop- Statesandconsider whetherthesocio-

p oifn4g.7fropermc1e4.nt7ipner1c9e7nt0,i4na1t91w0htiochanpaoidinrt

historical reality of language extinction andEnglishdominancewillprevailinthe

languagediversityhaddwindledtothe twenty-?rstcentury.

L point where the Census Bureau stopped

askingitsquestiononmothertongue.

anguagediversityreferstothenum-

Thegreat Americanparadoxisthat beroflanguagesspokeninthe United

whiletheUnitedStateshistoricallyhas Statesandthenumberofpeople who

beencharacterizedbygreatlinguistic speakthem.Since1980,informationon

diversitypropelledbyimmigration,ithas languagesspokenhasbeengathered

alsobeenazoneoflanguageextinction, fromthreequestionsposedtocensusand

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D?dalus,theJournaloftheAmericanAcademyofArts&Sciences

surveyrespondents: Doesthisperson amongthosewhospokeSpanish,half(49.4Rub?nG.

speak a language other than English at home? Whatisthislanguage?Andhow well does this person speak English?

peiegrTacnelblanetn)2guewaxegraeemfuiosnreeesibgtynhsehbogoerwion.gnrgatphheyshofarfeoro-fRDMoaususmgelbyaasutS.&

Amongotherpurposes,answerstothese personsaged?veandolderspeakinga

questionsareusedtodeterminebilingual non-Englishlanguageathomeinselected

electionrequirementsundertheVoting statesand metropolitanareas.Tocreate

RightsActof1965.Thesequestionswere thelist,weexaminedall?ftystatesand

askedofallpersonsaged?veandolder metropolitanareaswithatleast500,000

onthecensusesof1980through2000, inhabitantsandrankedthetoptwenty-

andin2010ontheAmericanCommunity ?veaccordingtothepercentageofnon-

Survey(acs),whichreplacedthecensus Englishspeakers.Thetwolistsclearly

longform.Table1summarizesthesedata revealthatspeakingaforeignlanguageis

byshowingtheshareof U.S.residents aphenomenonofthenation'speriphery

whosaidtheyspokeanon-Englishlan- ratherthanitsheartland,concentratedin

guageathome,aswellasthesharewho citiesandstatesalongthecoasts,the

spokeonlyEnglish,bydecadebetween GreatLakes,andtheU.S.-Mexicoborder.

1980and2010.BecauseSpanishisbyfar Onlyfourofthestatesonthelistarenei-

the most widelyspokennon-English theronacoast,alake,ortheborder,and

tongueintheUnitedStates,wealsoreport allofthemwerepartoftheMexicanCes-

thesharethatspeaksSpanishathome. sionof1848(Nevada,Colorado,Utahin

Asonewouldexpectduringanageof full,andKansasinpart).Kansasstands

massimmigration,thepercentagespeak- aloneasthesingleheartlandstateonthe

ingonlyEnglishathomehassteadilyfallen list,with10.6percentofitspopulation

inrecentdecades,decliningfrom89.1 speakinganon-Englishlanguageathome.

percentin1980to79.7percentin2010, Californiatopsthelistwith43.3percent

whilethesharespeakingalanguageother speakinganon-Englishlanguageathome,

thanEnglishcorrespondinglyrosefrom followedby36.1percentinNew Mexico,

11percentto20.3percent.Inabsolute 34.5percentinTexas,andover29percent

numbers,thenumberofpersons?veyears inbothNewYorkandNewJersey.The

andolderspeakingalanguageotherthan stateslistedinTable2clearlyreflectthe

Englishathomerosefrom23.1millionto influenceofmassimmigration,asthelist

59.5 million,withovertwo-thirdsofthe includesthemostimportantimmigrant-

increaseattributabletothegrowingnum- receivingstates(California, NewYork,

berofpeoplespeakingSpanishathome, NewJersey,Texas,Florida,andIllinois)as

whoat37millionmadeup12.6percentof wellasanumberofemergingimmigrant

thetotalpopulation,but62.2percentof destinations(Arizona, NorthCarolina,

allnon-Englishspeakersin2010. Mostof Virginia,Georgia,Utah,andNevada).In

theincreaseinSpanishlanguageusewas acountrywhereby2010overonein?ve

drivenby massimmigrationfromLatin persons(20.3percent)spokeaforeign

America.Indeed, most(56.7percent)of languageathome, WestVirginia, Missis-

thecountry'snearly60millionspeakers sippi,Kentucky, Montana,NorthDakota,

ofnon-Englishlanguagesareimmigrants. and Alabamastoodinsharpcontrast,

AmongthosewhospokeonlyEnglishat with95to98percentoftheirpopulations

homein2010,just2.6percentwereborn speakingEnglishonly.

outsidetheUnitedStates(mostlyimmi- Languagediversity,likeimmigration,

grantsfromEnglish-speakingcountries); isalsochieflya metropolitanphenome-

142(3)Summer2013

143

Immigra-Table1

Lantgiuoange&LanguageUsePatternsintheUnitedStates,1980?2010

Diversity

in the United

1980

1990

2000

States Languages

spokenathome N(millions) % N(millions) % N(millions) %

Total Population 5 years or older Spoke English only Spoke nonEnglishlanguage Spoke Spanish

210.2 100 230.4 100 262.4 100

187.2 89.1 198.6 86.2 215.5 82.1

23.1 11.0

31.8 13.8 47.0 17.9

11.1 5.3

17.3 7.5 28.1 10.7

2010 N(millions) %

289.2 100 229.7 79.7 59.5 20.3 37.0 12.6

Foreign born % 13.6

2.6 56.7 49.4

Source:1980,1990,and2000U.S.censuses;2010AmericanCommunitySurvey.

Table 2 PercentofPopulation(those?veyearsorolder)Speakinga Non-EnglishLanguageat Homein SelectedStatesand MetroAreas,2008?2010,byRanking

Top 25 States

California New Mexico Texas New York NewJersey Nevada Arizona Florida Hawaii Illinois Massachusetts Rhode Island Connecticut Washington Colorado Maryland Alaska Oregon Virginia Utah DistrictofColumbia Georgia Delaware Kansas North Carolina

%

43.4 36.1 34.5 29.6 29.1 28.8 27.0 27.0 26.0 21.9 21.5 21.0 20.8 17.8 16.9 16.4 16.0 14.5 14.4 14.1 13.9 12.9 12.1 10.6 10.6

Top25 Metros

McAllen, TX El Paso, TX Miami, FL Jersey City, NJ Los Angeles, CA SanJose,CA New York, NY Orange County, CA Fresno, CA San Francisco, CA Bakers?eld, CA Riverside, CA Bergen-Passaic, NJ San Antonio, TX Houston, TX Oakland, CA Ventura, CA Fort Lauderdale, FL San Diego, CA Middlesex-Somerset, NJ Las Vegas, NV Dallas, TX Albuquerque, NM Vallejo-Fair?eld-Napa, CA Chicago-Gary, IL

%

85.4 74.7 73.0 59.0 56.8 50.8 46.3 44.8 43.1 42.2 41.0 40.5 40.5 40.2 38.8 38.8 37.4 37.1 36.9 34.4 32.8 32.1 31.3 30.9 30.2

Source:AmericanCommunitySurvey,2008?2010 merged?les.

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D?dalus,theJournaloftheAmericanAcademyofArts&Sciences

non.Over91percentofthepopulationof Statestoday,whichforpurposesofpre-Rub?nG.

non-metropolitanareasinthe United StatesspeaksEnglishonly.Thetwenty-

sleanntgautiaognegwreoreucpso,dtehdeilnatrog3e9sltaonfguwahgiecshaanrdeRDMoaususmgelbyaasutS.&

?ve metropolitanareaswiththehighest summarizedinTable3.Herewedrawon

percentagesofresidents whospeaka mergedacs?lesfor2008?2010toachieve

non-Englishlanguageathomearecon- greaterreliabilityinestimatingdatafor

?nedentirelytothesixgatewaystates,as languagesspokenbyfewpeopleoverall,

showninTable2;theonlyexceptionsare yieldingsamplesandestimatesthatper-

LasVegasandAlbuquerque.Thelargest tainroughlyto2009.

sharesofpeoplelivinginhomeswherea The?rsttwocolumnsofthetableshow

languageotherthanEnglishisspokenare theestimatednumberandpercentageof

found,notsurprisingly,inthelargebor- peopleaged?veandabovewhoreported

dermetropolisesof McAllenandElPaso, speakingvariouslanguagesat home

Texas,where85.4percentand74.7per- (thoughfornon-Englishspeakers,noof-

centofthepopulations,respectively,speak ?cialdataarecollectedontheirfluencyin

anon-Englishlanguageathome(over- orfrequencyofuseoftheirnon-English

whelminglySpanish). Miami(73per- language).Asalreadynoted,Spanishdom-

cent),JerseyCity(59percent),LosAngeles inatesamongnon-Englishlanguagesspo-

(56.8percent),andSanJose(50.8per- kenintheUnitedStates.Inall,12.6percent

cent)arealsohometolargesharesof ofU.S.residentsaged?veorabovesaid

non-Englishspeakers.Evenatthebottom theyspokeSpanishathome.Thenext

ofthelist,30.2percentoftheChicagomet- closestlanguagewasChinese,accounting

ropolitanareapopulationspeaksanon- forjust0.9percentofthepopulation,fol-

Englishlanguageathome.Thus,tradi- lowedbyHindi,Urdu,andrelatedlan-

tionalgateway metropolitanareasare guagesat0.7percent,Tagalogandrelated

bastionsofnon-Englishusage.Among Filipinolanguagesat0.6percent,and

metropolitanareasofnewerimmigrant Vietnameseat0.5percent.Nootherlan-

settlementthatdonotappearinTable2, guagecategoryexceeded0.5percent.

by2010,onlyTucson,Phoenix,Seattle, Moreover,thetwolargestnon-English

andDenverexceededthenationalnon- categoriesafterSpanishhideconsiderable

English-usagenormof20percent;but diversity,giventhemanymutuallyunin-

Portland, Atlanta,SaltLakeCity,and telligiblevarietiesofChineseandthediver-

Raleigh-Durhamwerenotfarbehind. sityoftonguesspokenbypeoplefromthe

ThedominanceofSpanishamongfor- Indiansubcontinent.

eignlanguagesintheUnitedStatestoday Theright-handcolumnsshowtheper-

setsthecurrentageofmassimmigration centagesoflanguagespeakersbornabroad

apartfromearliererasinthenineteenth andintheUnitedStates.Amongthose

andearlytwentiethcenturies.In1910,for speakingAsianlanguages,thevastmajority

example,themostcommonnon-English werebornabroad,withtwoexceptions:

language,German,waslistedasthemoth- thosewhospeakKhmer,Hmong,Lao,and

ertonguebyjust20.7percentofthefor- relatedlanguages,34.3percentofwhom

eign-bornpopulation,followedbyItalian werenativeborn;andthosewhospeak

at10.2percent,Yiddishat7.9percent, Japanese,39.6percentof whom were

Polishat7.1percent,andSwedishat5.1 nativeborn.Theformer?gurereflects

percent. Nootherlanguageexceeded4 veryhighlevelsoffertilityanddeclining

percent.Incontrast,theacsrecorded immigrationafter1990forgroupsfrom

some382languagesspokenintheUnited LaosandCambodia,whereasthelatter

142(3)Summer2013

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