The fact that more and more signs are being written in Spanish as well as English seems to connote that Americans are becoming more accepting of immigrants. For many years, immigrants were discriminated against in the United States. At about the same time that the Civil Rights Movement was taking place so were immigration reforms which prohibited "discrimination in public accommodations, employment, and voting...the [1965] law established new, racially neutral criteria for immigration..." (Foner 926). Today, immigrants have many more opportunities because of the laws that prevent discrimination which were formed during the Civil RIghts Movement. America has always been known for having a mix of many cultures and ethnic backgrounds and I think that is a positive thing.
Many people still feel like Hispanics are taking over the U.S. because "Hispanics or Latinos constitute 16.7% of the total United States population, or 52 million people." Because there are so many Latinos who live in the United States, I think some may feel like they are taking jobs away from Americans. Though it is true that there are an increasing number of Hispanics in this country, I do not think there is any problem with that. I think that most of the jobs that Hispanics are taking are jobs that require manual labor that most Americans would not want to do anyway.
Why do you think many signs are being written in both English and Spanish (or other languages)? How do you feel about signs that are in other languages besides English?
I don't think that most Hispanics feel as though they are taking jobs away from Americans. I think a lot of Hispanics made the choice, either recently or a long time ago to come to America because of the job opportunities. Although, many of them do get manual labor jobs, as you said. I think that is a big argument, and many people think that Hispanics, among other immigrants are only able to get manual labor jobs, so the opportunities that America seemingly provided are not everything they had hoped for. That is one of the problems many people argue is wrong with the economic system in America today. So, I do agree with you that more immigrants/Spanish speakers are coming to America today, but I don't think they necessarily get the same opportunities as Americans.
ReplyDeleteSara, I agree with you that many immigrants who come to the U.S. are only able to get manual labor jobs. But, do you think that the condition has improved for immigrants since the reform in 1965? Do you feel like a greater stress is being put on learning a foreign language than there should be?
ReplyDeleteJosh, I do feel like there is a greater stress being put on students to learn a foreign language, but I think that there is a right to be. Countries around the world involve their children even more then we do in languages. To many students around the world, they feel as if they need to learn english to succeed. While this may be true, I think the fear they have of their own language becoming useless gives them a real motivation to learn english. I think that even though we know that english is always going to be useless, by telling people that Spanish is up and coming, maybe we will have more motivation to learn it. I think it is right that the school systems are taking the initiative to make learning a foreign language easier, by putting signs around the school.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Caroline. The demographics of the U.S. are rapidly changing and it is important to learn other languages. But, why do you think some people might be offended by more things being written in various languages rather than just English?
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