Workforce Language Services

An estimated 850,000 adults in the Greater Chicago area have limited English competency skills, according to Literacy Chicago. With many of their children in English-speaking public schools, this creates a huge problem for Chicago schools.

Parents may not need the English communication skills on the job, but without the ability to speak in English, they are unable to communicate with teachers and other parents, as well as their children. One example:

Although Maximina Esteban’s work as a house cleaner does not require her to speak English, her duty as a single mother of two sons does.

Born and raised in Chicago, Esteban’s children, 11 and 7, spend most of their days at school speaking English rather than Spanish.

Despite her attempts to get them to speak Spanish at home, they reply in English, especially her younger son. He understands very little Spanish and rarely uses it with his mother.

Literacy Chicago, which provides free English language training to adults, had their federal funding reduced by 13% for the 2010 fiscal year. They anticipate greater cuts in 2011. Other organizations with English literacy programs are facing similar cuts.

Explains Medill Reports of Northwestern University, “This threat of budget cutbacks makes immigrant parents particularly vulnerable. With fewer opportunities for free English instruction, they will continue to struggle to communicate with their children and their teachers.”

Read the full story here.

While Latinos make up more than a third of the Texan workforce, they earn 35% less than their white counterparts, reports the Texan Tribune.

On average, they earn about $11.50 per hour, compared to $17.90 for non-Hispanic whites. The gap is larger here than in the rest of the country: Outside of Texas, Latinos earn $12.42, while their Anglo counterparts earn about $17.55.

Regardless of skill, Latinos were responsible for most of the expansion in the state’s labor pool since the mid-1990s and have been a boon to the state’s economy. “The Latino population’s increase transformed Texas’ labor force and led to faster economic growth,” the report says. “Latinos accounted for 76 percent of the state’s labor force growth between 1994 and 2008.”

One factor that may account for the discrepancy is the education gap. 40% of Latinos age 25 or older didn’t graduate from high school, compared to 5% of whites. However, some educators say that cultural and economic factors often trump the importance of going to school; the responsibility to take care of one’s family has an impact on dropout rates.

Read more about the Latino pay gap here, in the Texan Tribune.

…a really amazing food blog called The Homesick Texan. Really as much about Hispanic-American culture/nostalgia as it is about food, the blog features gorgeous photos, mouth-watering recipes, and great stories about living the Tex-Mex life.

http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/

Should names of the likes of Cesar Chavez and other Hispanic historical figures be erased from the history books? Some people in Texas seem to think so, and so the State Board of Education will put the question to a vote.

The online magazine Latina Lista takes a strong stance against this in an editorial titled “Latino leadership needed to counter TX State Board of Education’s attempt to write minorities out of history.”

The article cites a new study from the Southern Education Foundation that reports that for the first time in history, more that half of students in the 15 Southern states are children of color—African-American, Hispanic and Native American. Latina Lista sees this as a blatant reason not to cut minority leaders out of the textbooks.

These SBOE board members, along with their appointees, who adhere to the perspective that it is repugnant to teach children about the historical contributions of Latinos and African Americans show they are no better, and given recent quotes attributed to some who were involved in setting the Social Studies standards, are essentially rewriting U.S. history to conform to their distorted views of how they wish to see the United States.

Click here to read the full (heated) opinion.

A “cesta” (”basket,” in English) is a lending circle in which 6 to 12 individuals contribute a monthly sum of money, and the pooled funds serve as a credit line for the members involved. It’s a model that’s well known in Latin America, but cestas are only now beginning to pop up in the U.S.

An organization called the Mission Asset Fund (MAF) is helping cestas in California link to the credit market, so that the peer-to-peer groups can establish credit histories. In San Francisco, 44% of households have no credit history at all, and more than half of Latino adults don’t have bank accounts.

“This data is very discouraging,” says MAF executive director José Quiñonez. “But we decided, really our whole approach has been, to try and view the community from a positive perspective, to appreciate what they have, not what they lack, and to build on what they have.”

The cesta banking model has been called a breakthrough, and one that non-profits can replicate.  Members must act democratically to decide how much to contribute, and who has priority to withdraw their credit. Groups are usually founded among family members or circles of friends where there is a high level of trust. “The pressure to obey the agreed rules, however informal, is more social than legal.” The goal for most members is to get out of credit card debt with other lenders, and expand business operations.

To read more about cestas and how they’re growing in Latino communities around the U.S., click here.

The NYTimes article “In Job Hunt, College Degree Can’t Close Racial Gap” was a most-emailed article last week. We’ve written about this issue before — job applicants with ethnic-sounding names are having a harder time getting interviews and jobs than their white counterparts, despite being equally qualified.

With the job market in a crunch, applicants are doing everything they can to gain an edge over their competitors. But when highly-qualified African-Americans are changing the way their names appear on their résumés just to get a call back, its obvious that they are facing a more devastating disadvantage.

Johnny R. Williams, 30, would appear to be an unlikely person to have to fret about the impact of race on his job search, with companies like JPMorgan Chase and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago on his résumé.

But after graduating from business school last year and not having much success garnering interviews, he decided to retool his résumé, scrubbing it of any details that might tip off his skin color. His membership, for instance, in the African-American business students association? Deleted.

Another applicant interviewed uses the name Barry J. Sykes instead of the full Barry Jabbar Sykes, even though he’s always gone by Jabbar.

Although discrimination is rarely overt, interviewees report surprised faces on interviewers once they do get their feet in the door, with waned interest after the interviewers see the applicant is not white. Surprisingly, education, which would seem to level the playing field between whites and blacks, has made it more difficult for black job applicants. The unemployment rate for black male applicants with college degrees is twice that of their white peers.

Read the full article and interpretation here.

A news story out of Columbia, SC, where the Hispanic population is 14%, reports that Hispanics are not receiving adequate healthcare. Specifically, certain perceived limitations, like having a foreign accent or not knowing a doctor, are preventing Latinos from receiving the care they need.

[Latinos are] three times less likely to have a consistent source of medical care and one and a half times more likely to use the emergency room as a primary source of healthcare. Making unnecessary trips to the emergency room is one of the most common mistakes Hispanics make, and it can cost them hundreds of dollars.

The article report on some recent data from the Pew Hispanic Center:

• 46 percent say they believe their accent contributed to their poor care.
• 43 percent say they believe their inability to pay contributed to their poor care.
• 37 percent say they believe their race or ethnicity caused them to receive poor care.

A group called “Promotoras de Salud” is trying to get information out to the Latino population about where to go when sick and other resources that will help make their experience with health care more successful.

Read the full article here.

Since 1880, the Social Security Administration has been tracking popularity of baby names. And even though the Hispanic population in the US is on the rise (by 2025, 30% of all American children will have some Latino ancestry), Spanish names are down in the US. Time Magazine reports.

First, Time looks at some findings from a recent Pew Hispanic Center study:

As recently as 1980, just 9% of U.S. kids under 18 were Hispanic, compared with 22% today. Only about a tenth of that population are first-generation Latin Americans — meaning they were born outside the U.S. More than half (52%) are second generation — born in the U.S. to at least one foreign-born parent; and 37% were born in America to American-born parents.

What happens, of course, when an immigrant group heads toward assimilation, is that each successive generation gets more educated and more proficient in the national language. Another thing that happens is that parents start moving away from baby names like Guillermo and closer to names like William.

“When [immigrant or later-generation] parents name their children, they are combining their own attachments and affinities with their hopes and aspirations for their children,” says Guillermina Jasso, a sociology professor at New York University and a second-generation Hispanic American.

In the past decade, “Juan” has dropped in popularity from the 48th spot to 66th. “Guillermo” slid from 369th place to 470. Names like “Angelica” and “Manuel” have seen downward drops as well. Many girls’ names seem to survive the crossover better than boys’ — the ‘a’ at the end of the name (Maria,Victoria, Diana) seems to do better than an ‘o’ (Antonio becomes Anthony; Marco becomes Mark).

The Time columnist wraps up his thoughts with this statement: “If the Elisas and Jorges and Angelicas of this era are fated to go the way of the Moeshes and Mitzis of an earlier one, the consolation is that with such nominative extinction comes melting-pot belonging. That’s always been at the heart of the American experiment — and it likely always will be.”

But there will always be two schools of thought: parents who want to honor their heritage with a Spanish name, and those who wish to assimilate to make the “mainstream” more comfortable. As another blogger points out, “if you pick an ‘assimilated’ name to fit in, do you perpetuate the myth that those without assimilated names are ‘out’?”

See other posts about Hispanic names:

• Hotel owner makes Hispanic employees ’shorten’ Spanish names
• What’s in a Hispanic name 

Click here to read the full article in Time.

A hotel owner in Taos, Texas recently asked that all his Hispanic employees “shorten” their names to something a little more “American.” According to an article posted by Asylum, the new boss mandated the following upon his takeover:

1. No speaking Spanish in front of the boss.
2. Everyone’s fired and has to re-apply for their jobs.
3. It’s “strongly suggested” that employees shorten their long, silly Spanish names. (”Who has the time to say ‘Marcos?’ Why not Mark or Bill?” That’s actually a real example.)

Roberto Ruiz of the San Antonio Public Policy Examiner sees this as a strong case against America’s declaration as of late that we live in a “post-racial” society.  He also points out that Hispanics make up the majority population in Taos.

It usually comes as a surprise to people when I mention that our republic does not have an “official language.” Wisely, this nation’s founders decided not to declare an official language, their reasons included “a belief in tolerance for linguistic diversity within the population, the economic and social value of foreign language knowledge and citizenry, and a desire not to restrict the linguistic and cultural freedom of those living in the new country.”

In a previous blog post, “What’s in a Hispanic name,” we’ve looked at the Hispanic naming system and how it is often confused in the United States, resulting in a loss of culture and identity for many Hispanic Americans (click here to go to the post).

Read Ruiz’s full column here.

It’s Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15-Oct. 15), and the Hispanic population in the U.S. is proudly celebrating their heritage. CNN’s series “Latino in America” takes a special look at largest part of this group: Mexican-Americans.

3 of 10 Mexican-Americans were born to parents who were also born in the U.S., meaning that their national heritage is as deeply rooted in the U.S.’s as it is the country of their ancestors. But a continuing wave of immigrating Mexicans means that their identity remains closely linked to current immigration issues and their “Mexicanness,” in both problematic and enjoyable ways.

Ask the later-generation descendants of earlier waves of Mexican immigrants, and they’ll tell you that “Where are you from … no, where are you really from?” are questions that they have to field all too often. And even if it’s clear that they are Mexican-Americans, they still get quizzed about how well they speak Spanish. Assumptions about them being foreign turn from annoying to downright scary when law enforcement personnel suspect them of being illegal immigrants.

On the other hand, Mexican-Americans and Hispanics that have assimilated into the fabric of life in the U.S. have an advantage that many other immigrants don’t—easy access to their roots. Opportunities to celebrate their culture are all around, in the food, language and cultural traditions that persist thanks to ongoing immigration.

In fact, corporations, politicians and retailers are trying to grab a piece of the Hispanic market more than ever these days, and many Hispanics see this as an opportunity for growth.

Read Tomás R. Jiménez’s full article on this issue here at CNN.com.