Student Presenters:

• Isabelle Maske
• Allison Aquino

Transcript:

In November of 2019, NBC News reported that a substitute teacher at a Texas high school was caught on camera telling a Spanish speaking student to speak English, saying, we’re in America. Hello, I’m Isabel Maske.

I’m Allison Aquino. This is a podcast for ‘Living in the Hyphen: Immigrant Cultures at the Border‘ from the University of North Florida. We will discuss the implications of linguistic assimilation with a focus on migrant youth in the education system.

To begin, we will discuss the narrative of dialects, which in this instance refers to a particular form of language that is related to a specific region or social group, such as North Mexican Spanish, Chicana Spanish, and standard Spanish.

Regarding migrant youth, 31 US states have adopted English as their official language, including Texas where a large majority of residents speak Spanish. This has pushed the norm of English-only government and education instruction.

This ruling invokes an uprising and external stigmas where young migrants can be attributed as uneducated, even though they make up 32% of all public students.

Without access to instruction in their native language, no peers who encourage speaking their mother tongue, education disparities occur as migrant students face higher dropout rates.

Eva Mendieta, Professor of Spanish at Indiana University Northwest proposed the stigmatization of certain dialects and the pressure to conform to a standard language norm perpetuates a single narrative about what is considered correct or acceptable language use. This erases the richness of linguistic diversity, especially among young migrants who bring varied linguistic experiences.

This statement ties back to the in class reading of How to Tame a Wild Tongue by Gloria Anzaldua where she touches on the issues of gender and class in the description of how women and working class individuals are marginalized for how they speak as she illustrates that Chicana women are embarrassed to communicate with each other out of fear of judgment and shame.

Moreover, with these migrant youth experiencing external stigmas, they also face internal stigmas perpetuating if you’re speaking their mother tongue as their dialect influenced by the English language is seen as broken.

This complicates their sense of self and belonging through dual pressures to assimilate from their schools and peers and to preserve from their family who expect them to maintain their language and culture in turn causing identity confusion.

Further expressing the dire scenario, the National Institutes of Health reported that migrants who arrive at a younger age tend to have more difficulty integrating their original identity with their new cultural environment, potentially leading to greater identity confusion.

Leslie Barrett, Associate Dean of regional International and language studies at the University of Wisconsin Madison states, despite efforts to support multilingualism in schools, refugee students often reported that their native languages were not valued. Instead, they were expected to prioritize English, contributing to feelings of alienation and the gradual loss of their linguistic heritage. This ties back to how migrant youth often feel isolated from their peers from cultural and language perspective, as well as the presented stigmas that give light to a single story.

You may be wondering about the bigger picture of the upbringing of migrant youth, which can be explained through the sociological theories of the “melting pot and salad bowl.”

To familiarize yourself with these concepts, the term melting pot is a metaphor that describes a society where people of different cultures and religions blend together to form a new unified culture. The term salad bowl describes a heterogeneous society in which people coexist but retain at least some of their unique characteristics of their traditional culture.

As Isabelle and I discussed previously, we feel this theory better aligns with society today, as many immigrants are opposed to adopting an American style of living by forgetting their own culture, exemplifying these as ethnic enclaves such as Chinatown, Little Tokyo, and Little India.

This multiculturalism approach demonstrates that people don’t need to give up on their cultural identity and heritage to become part of a dominant society. Countering the idea that America is a melting pot, we can attest that the term melting pot only truly applies to European immigrants as their cultures and ways of life can be more similar to Americanism, as well as the fact that Caucasian race allows them to blend more seamlessly into society compared to those with different complexions, which can be seen as outsiders.

However, others argue that Americans need to have a common national identity, in which case, the salad bowl theory can allow for discrimination and prejudice, especially in ethnic enclaves, making them feel isolated.

Department of Sociology professors at Stockholm University, Didem Oral and Anna Lund expressed that it is good that a child understands her identity. For example, in different cultures, we have different advantages and disadvantages. You can choose different benefits from each different culture. This is essential because understanding identity across cultures helps children embrace diversity and draw strings from their heritage, as well as being able to thrive in a multicultural world such as the United States.

As we discussed, the implications of linguistic assimilation extend far beyond the classroom. The push for English only policies not only affect the educational outcomes of migrant youth, but also shapes their sense of identity, belonging, and future opportunities.

By acknowledging the value of linguistic diversity and fostering inclusive environments, we can challenge the stigmas and systematic barriers that alienate young migrants.

Recognizing that no single narrative defines what it means to be American is essential in supporting the success and well being of migrant youth.

Thank you for your time and attention. We hope this discussion inspires future reflection on how we can collectively work towards a more inclusive society.

What are your thoughts? How can we foster an educational environment that promotes cultural innovation?