Workforce Language Services

Immigration reform is one the most controversial political topics today. Let’s face it: any decision made related to immigration crackdowns are going to affect our workforce, where many sectors are based on cheap, unskilled labor that immigrants provide. For better or for worse, how will these crackdowns affect the U.S. workforce?

The New York Times uses Michel Malecot as an example, who is the owner of a small French restaurant in San Diego. He was charged and indicted with charges of employing 12 illegal immigrants. If found guilty, he faces the forfeiture of his restaurant and up to $4 million in fines.

The Obama administration has been getting tough on immigration enforcement laws, which were once considered lax. This year federal employees expect to announce a record number of investigation and fines.

Taking a look at the restaurant industry, 1.4 million workers, both legal and illegal, are foreign-born. “According to 2008 estimates from the Pew Hispanic Center, about 20 percent of the nearly 2.6 million chefs, head cooks and cooks are illegal immigrants. Among the 360,000 dishwashers, 28 percent are undocumented, according to the estimates.”

While hiring illegal immigrants may be industry standard, the crackdowns are welcomed from many immigrant rights supporters, who see that illegal immigrants are underpaid and also afraid of complaining to their employers.

It can be complicated business for everyone involved. Employers don’t want the burden of policing their employees when they provide what appears to be legal paperwork, and even electronic verification systems have incorrect information that could turn away eligible workers. Many employers are now petitioning for immigration reform that makes it easier for undocumented workers to gain legal status.

Read the full NYTimes article here.

While Chicago is no longer #1 in foreign language speakers, it’s still known as one of the country’s biggest melting pots. In fact, only one-third of Cook County residents speak only English. Nationwide, a new census report (data from 1980-2007) shows that the number of residents over 5 years old who speak a language other than English has more than doubled, equaling 20% of the population.

Chicago has seen an interesting linguistic shift due to a change in immigration patterns. While Spanish is still on the rise, many “old world” European languages like Yiddish and Italian are declining.

There was a time when Chicago didn’t have to be content with place- or show-honors in America’s linguistic derby. Its neighborhoods, the commerce association’s 1909 “Guide Book” said, “were really little cities within the metropolis, each speaking its only language, clinging to its hereditary customs, and in large part governing itself.”

For decades around the dawn of the 20th century, Chicago’s factories drew more immigrants from rural regions of Eastern and Southern Europe than any other U.S. city. Now, notes geographer Irving Cutler, Europeans looking for work don’t need to go overseas.

“With the European Union, they can move within the continent from where the jobs aren’t to where they are,” said Cutler, author of “Chicago: Metropolis of the Mid-Continent.”

That translates into the linguistic shift, notes Paral. In the 1920s, when the federal government imposed strict immigration quotas, 27 percent of Chicagoans were foreign-born. By 1970 that number had fallen to less than 10 percent, even as the great influx of Spanish speakers from Latin America was beginning.

Chicago still has more Polish speakers than any other city in the U.S., and comes in 2nd, 3rd or 4th in many other languages: “Arabic (4th), German (2nd), Greek (2nd), Gujarati (2nd), Hindi (3rd), Hungarian (4th), Italian (3rd), Korean (4th), Russian (3rd), Serbo-Croatian (2nd), Spanish (4th) and Urdu (2nd).”

Read the Chicago Tribune’s full report on its local language phenomenon here.

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Chicago’s Chinatown is the 3rd largest in the United States, and is currently undergoing a linguistic and cultural shift from Cantonese to Mandarin. The People’s Republic of China standardized Mandarin as the national language in 1955, and now, many more immigrants are familiar with the language.

Immigrants from the northern part of China who speak Mandarin are deciding to settle outside of the traditionally Cantonese Chinatown, distancing the two Chinese communities.

“It’s the cultural background, in addition to the language problem, that makes people prefer one community over another,” [Susan] Ng-Harroun [executive director of the Chicago Chinatown Chamber of Commerce] said.

While the two language groups do interact at times within the community, such as for Chinese New Year celebrations, the limitations in conversational skills, coupled with different traditions, has led to more segregation than unity.

“The different dialects do reflect some cultural differences,” [David] Wu said. “The Chinese churches, restaurants and businesses outside of Chinatown are all Mandarin communities.”

Business owners see that Mandarin speakers won’t shop at Cantonese establishments. However, little by little, the signage in Chinatown is incorporating more simplified Chinese script, which Mandarin speakers typically read.

Read a full report of the shifting languages in Chinatown in this Medill article. Check out the article’s example of changing signage.

It’s a sad day when an international presidential address, lauded for its poignancy and timely comments, is rendered unintelligible by an interpreter. This is what happened last week when Mexican president Felipe Calderon visited the White House and intended to express his disapproval of Arizona’s new immigration law.

The translation was so bad that the White House chose to ignore the official transcript provided. The Mexican delegate blamed their own translator.

For example, here’s how Calderon’s comments on the tough new immigration law in Arizona were rendered by his translator during the opening ceremony:

“We can do so with a community that will promote a dignified life and an orderly way for both our countries, who are, some of them, still living here in the shadows with such laws as the Arizona law that is placing our people to face discrimination.”

And here’s how those same comments appeared in the official transcript issued later Wednesday:

“I know that we share the interest in promoting dignified, legal and orderly living conditions to all migrant workers. Many of them, despite their significant contribution to the economy and to the society of the United States, still live in the shadows and, occasionally, as in Arizona, they even face discrimination.”

It seemed most unfortunate that the poor interpretation should happen just when the U.S. and Mexico are attempting to strengthen their neighborly ties to work together on controversial issues like immigration reform and drug trafficking.

Read the full story here in the Washington Post.

Click here to watch WLS’s founder and president Jill Bishop eloquently explain our language and cultural training services at the Midwest Security & Police Conference/Expo. (Once you’re on the page, click on the video icon.)

Some talking points:

Hispanics make up around 15% of the U.S. population, and that number will triple by 2050. Is your organization prepared for the linguistic and cultural challenges?

In our “Spanish for Law Enforcement” trainings, WLS doesn’t focus on that grammar you learned back in 9th grade and have forgotten since. You’ll learn industry-specific terminology that you can use instantly on the job. We’ll help you anticipate challenges and find the appropriate solutions.

WLS offers onsite, customized trainings and workshops to help employers (from police departements to restaurants) prepare their employees for any linguistic or cultural situation that may come up in their industry.

As Jill says, “It’s all about the expressions you need to do your job better.”

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.

Hispanic population growth leapt 15% from 2007-2008 in Luzerne County, PA, topping the nation with this milestone. Hispanics now make up about one-third of the small county’s population.

The county is opening its arms to the new diversity, whose growth could be caused by an exodus from more expensive urban areas like New York and New Jersey. In the city, jobs are harder to come by, and so is affordable housing. Linda Trompetter, director of the Luzerne County Diversity Commission and the Diversity Institute at Misericordia University, says she has noticed the changing face of the community and it’s new needs.

“We need a lot more education and working together to deal with the issues that arise because of it,” such as the need for increased English as a Second Language instruction in schools, healthcare services and issues of tolerance.

Trompetter is receiving more and more requests for cultural competency training from local businesses, hospitals and school districts. The trainings teach people how to “interact effectively with any group of people whose culture is different than our own,” and how to respect those differences.

To read more about this issue from the Hazleton Times, click here.

Advertising Age published a great article about the Spanish language in the U.S.—what it has meant in the past, and where it stands today.

Spanish is discussed in four sections: language as  differentiator, language as unifier, language as culture, language as currency. To start, Spanish has played an important role in American culture for many generations, although in the past, there was a strongly repressive attitude against its use. As a result, many children born to Spanish native speakers in the U.S. never learned their parents’ language.

This has resulted in a retro-acculturation trend, wherein the second generation seeks to reclaim their lost linguistic and cultural heritage. And that, in turn, has created birth of a new marketing industry to Hispanics living in the U.S.

Hispanic marketers have a lot to consider. For one, Spanish speakers are regionally very diverse, which can dramatically affect the target audience.

For years one of the biggest challenges for marketers targeting the Hispanic market has been about achieving a delicate balance between relevance and commonality. If we use Puerto Rican slang, will we offend the Domincans, Cubans and Mexicans in the same market? If we are too “current” and popular will we seem to “Naco” for the older and higher income consumers? Famous cases of language slip-ups and lack of sensitivity haunt the halls of most all Hispanic agencies that have been around any significant period of time.

Read more about the language and cultural implications of Hispanic marketing in the U.S. in the full article.