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>shifting from a few percent Spanish speaking to 1/4 in just three decades Where are you getting that? The current percent of native Spanish speakers in the US
by learc83 10y ago
>shifting from a few percent Spanish speaking to 1/4 in just three decades
Where are you getting that? The current percent of native Spanish speakers in the US is only about 13%, and the majority of them also speak English.
Immigration from Mexico has dropped off and the number of Americans of Hispanic descent who speak only English at home is rapidly increasing.
Virtually all immigrant children learn English in school, so it's very likely that the benefits of learning Spanish will decrease over time not increase. Historically the 3rd generation of US immigrants speak only English, and the current trends suggest that will happen with Hispanic immigrants as well.
- dragonwriter 10y ago> Immigration from Mexico has dropped off Mostly due to the recent US economic downturn and the poor distribution of the returns of the subsequent aggregate expansion beyond the upper classes. That's probably not a durable trend unless the US economy continues to be miserable for all but the elites.
- learc83 10y agoSome of it yes, but there is also a limit to how many people are willing to migrate. Mexico is only about 1/3 the size of the US and surveys indicate only 1/3 of Mexican adults have any desire to come to the US at all. Of those people, only half indicated willingness to come illegally and given that fact that they haven't done it yet, you can assume most of them won't. (This matters because there are limits on the number of legal immigrants) Assuming all Mexicans who are willing to actually make the journey here make it, and adding in immigrants from other Spanish speaking countries, it's still not enough to overcome the historical trend towards language assimilation.