TY - JOUR
T1 - Who Doesn't Value English? Debunking Myths About Mexican Immigrants' Attitudes Toward the English Language
AU - Dowling, Julie A.
AU - Ellison, Christopher G.
AU - Leal, David L.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank Dr. David Lazer, Iolanthe Chronis and various undergraduate contributors for their help with the experimental deployment. Anmol Madan and Alex Pentland were partially sponsored by the Army Research Laboratory under Cooperative Agreement Number W911NF-09-2-0053, and by AFOSR under Award Number FA9550-10-1-0122. Views and conclusions in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the Army Research Laboratory or the U.S. Government. The U.S. Government is authorized to reproduce and distribute reprints for Government purposes notwithstanding any copyright notation. Katayoun Farrahi and Daniel Gatica-Perez were supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation through the MULTI and HAI projects.
PY - 2012/6
Y1 - 2012/6
N2 - Objective: In recent years, immigration has become a central focus of political scrutiny. Much of the negativity directed toward the largely Mexican immigrant population asserts that they do not wish to learn English and acclimate to the dominant culture of the United States. Very little research, however, has explored how Mexican immigrants or Mexican Americans assess the value of English proficiency. Methods: Utilizing the Survey of Texas Adults, we examine attitudes regarding the importance of English. We explore the attitudes of Mexican-origin persons compared to other racial/ethnic groups, as well as explore within-group differences based on citizenship, nativity, and language use. Results: Our findings reveal the high importance that Spanish speakers, as well as many non-U.S. citizen Mexican immigrants, place on English proficiency. Furthermore, the results indicate that Spanish speakers are actually most likely to stress the importance of English. Conclusions: Our research contradicts accounts of the largely Spanish-speaking Mexican immigrant population as not valuing the English language. In so doing, our work contributes to larger scholarly efforts to better understand immigrants in general and Mexican immigrants in particular.
AB - Objective: In recent years, immigration has become a central focus of political scrutiny. Much of the negativity directed toward the largely Mexican immigrant population asserts that they do not wish to learn English and acclimate to the dominant culture of the United States. Very little research, however, has explored how Mexican immigrants or Mexican Americans assess the value of English proficiency. Methods: Utilizing the Survey of Texas Adults, we examine attitudes regarding the importance of English. We explore the attitudes of Mexican-origin persons compared to other racial/ethnic groups, as well as explore within-group differences based on citizenship, nativity, and language use. Results: Our findings reveal the high importance that Spanish speakers, as well as many non-U.S. citizen Mexican immigrants, place on English proficiency. Furthermore, the results indicate that Spanish speakers are actually most likely to stress the importance of English. Conclusions: Our research contradicts accounts of the largely Spanish-speaking Mexican immigrant population as not valuing the English language. In so doing, our work contributes to larger scholarly efforts to better understand immigrants in general and Mexican immigrants in particular.
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U2 - 10.1111/j.1540-6237.2012.00850.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1540-6237.2012.00850.x
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84865091856
SN - 0038-4941
VL - 93
SP - 356
EP - 378
JO - Social Science Quarterly
JF - Social Science Quarterly
IS - 2
ER -