U.S. Insecurity About Immigrants Nothing New Fear Has Manifested Itself In Backlashes Through History

When Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole joined the call to make English the country’s official language this week, he tapped into a resurgent vein of insecurity about immigrants that has troubled the country since its founding.

From before the American Revolution until today, Americans have periodically worried that immigrants would maintain their own languages and split the United States into a Babel-like collection of tribes unwilling or unable to communicate.

That fear has manifested itself in periodic backlashes, from Benjamin Franklin’s warning that immigrants would never learn English, to World War I-era attempts to ban the teaching of German.

Now comes the latest move, to make English the country’s official language, to require the government to print most of its documents in English and, in the language war’s biggest battleground, to ban bilingual education.

Though popular - three out of five support the official language idea - the movement so far appears largely symbolic, a political salve to an economically anxious nation.

Consider:

The federal measures pending in Congress would prohibit foreign languages in government documents but would not prohibit multilingual education;

Many of the state laws or constitutional amendments are toothless. Florida, for instance, amended its constitution in 1988 to make English the official state language, but its legislature has never followed up with the laws needed to enforce it;

Dole himself sends mixed signals, saying he wants to end multilingual education, while also saying schools should continue programs to help immigrants learn English. Education experts say that is precisely what bilingual education does.

“This is an issue for politicians, but I don’t think these laws will affect anything,” said Christine Rossell, a political science professor at Boston University who is writing a book on the language wars.

Not true, said Rep. Toby Roth, R-Wis., author of one of the English language proposals pending in Congress.

While his proposal would allow local school districts to continue bilingual education, he said it would abolish a federal mandate and prohibit federal financing of bilingual education. It also would require that all government forms, including ballots, be printed only in English. It would not affect private businesses or private use of other languages.

For Roth and others, the English-first movement is critical to the country’s future.