Hi Maurice Winn; Re: "Immigration. % of population foreign born."
You're still missing the point. What you need is the data for immigration into the US, and you should get that data divided according to the language spoken. The longer someone is in the US, the more English they pick up and the less likely they are to find a foreign language enclave an attractive place to live. The figures for foreign born include people who have lived in the US for decades and cannot be easily distinguished from the locals. And you need to look at the immigration data divided according to the language spoken by the immigrant.
For example, in 1847, the large and important city of Boston was 1/3 Irish born. Most of them had arrived as a result of the potato famine of the previous few years, and were quite fresh off the boat. For a while there was an exuberant Irish speaking enclave, but try and find it now. I would guess that somewhere out there there is a major US city with 1/3 of its population foreign born, but a lot of those foreign born are not Spanish speakers and are not going to contribute to such an enclave.
The whole country originally used native languages other than English, of course, but even in places where the natives were not decimated (like Hawaii), the native languages have lost out to English over the years. Lousiana still has French as its official second language (as far as I know), but only about 6% of the population speaks it, far less than the historical figure. Of course Spanish is still spoken in Florida and the southwestern states, but among those who are descended from the Spanish speakers at the time that those territories became part of the country, the vast majority speak English. New York City itself was originally a Dutch speaking enclave, but try and find the language now. The German speakers of Pennsylvania are now quite rare (like the Amish). Lousiana still has French as an official 2nd language, but it's now only spoken by 6% of the population there, probably an all time low.
The simple historical fact is that the US has faced foreign language enclaves in its past with an ability to resist the spread of English far greater than anything that now exists. The historical changes that have contributed to the downfall of foreign language enclaves in general include the following:
(a) High population density of native speakers. Back when the US had wide open spaces open to settling, it was possible for a group of, for example, German speakers, to collect together in some stretch of, for example, North Dakota or Texas, and have their own little community of German speakers. Those enclaves existed once, but they're now almost all gone, and with the closing up of the frontier, they can no longer start again.
(b) Increased population mobility. The population of the US has become increasingly mobile, and this mobility makes it very attractive to speak a language which allows one to live in far parts of the country. Intermarriage between different language speakers tends to produce children who are native English speakers, as that language allows higher income.
(c) Mass media influence. The pervasive effect of mass media on the population has been to markedly reduce even the regional accents that once made communication between English speakers from different parts of the country difficult. Where the children of immigrants once had to learn English through great difficulty, its currently taught, even in homes with no English speakers at all, through the use of the TV set as a baby sitting tool. Sure there are Spanish language programs available, but the vast majority of the channels are in English.
-- Carl |
