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Title: The Context of English-Language Adoption among 2nd Generation Ethnics as Reflected in the 1940 U.S. Census

Citation Type: Conference Paper

Publication Year: 2002

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Abstract: 'The Context of English-Language Adoption among 2nd Generation Ethnics as Reflected in the 1940 U.S. Census,' Walter D. KamphoefnerThe contemporary debate on immigration often suffers from the assumption that during the era of massive European influxes, immigrants adopted English quickly and universally. In fact, figures from 1940 show that the percentage of 2nd generation ethnics claiming English as their mother tongue ranged from a high of nearly two-thirds for some groups to barely 20 percent for others. This paper will examine foreign language retention/English adoption in the 2nd generation as a rough indicator of ethnic acculturation. Its primary source of evidence is information on mother tongue of the children of immigrants in the Public Use Sample from the 1940 U.S. Census. It compares 23 nationality groups--all those large enough to present an adequate sample size (French Canadians, Mexicans, and 21 European groups). Adoption of English is examined in relation to individual characteristics such as age, sex, ethnic homogeneity of parents, and residence in rural or urban settings. Also taken into consideration are the similarities to English of various immigrant tongues, and two types of contextual variables: regional and familial. Regional variables include the absolute size and population proportion of the ethnic group in the area, and the recency of arrival as indicated by ratio of 1st to 2nd generation ethnics; familial variables include number of foreign-born in the household, naturalization (as a rough surrogate for recency of arrival), occupation, literacy and educational levels of the parents' generation.Results of these analyses show that turn-of-the-century critics of immigration such as the Dillingham Commission were totally off base in their fears of the urban huddled masses: other things being equal, city dwelling ethnics learned English most quickly, and those on the farm, most slowly. In fact, once the playing field had been leveled by controlling for such contestual variables, the gap in English language adoption narrowed considerably between the 'Old' immigration from Northern and Western Europe and the allegedly inferior 'New' immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe. Interestingly, both North American groups in the study, Mexicans and French Canadians, had very high rates of language preservation, suggesting the importance of proximity and return migration. The factor of linguistic affinity proves to play a relatively minor role; the second generation from both Spain and France had rates of English adoption nearly 30 points higher than ethnics rooted in their erstwhile North American colonies. This study is the first to explore the factor of linguistic affinity, and illuminates the much-neglected field of the language transition. It highlights a number of structural factors which continue to affect ethnic adoption of English down to the present.

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Authors: Kamphoefner, Walter D.

Conference Name: ACSUS-in-Canada Colloquium

Publisher Location: Ottawa, Ontarion, Canada

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Other, Race and Ethnicity

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