Workforce Language Services

An article published by the Center for American Progress recommends that the United States invest more actively in the integration of its recent immigrant populations.

This goes far beyond English classes—government policy should also include civics instruction and incentives for businesses that educate their non-English speaking employees. The European Union, which has also seen unprecedented waves of immigration in the last decade, has established an integration forum, Web site, and an Integration Fund that will help each community help their newcomers.

Cities and counties in the United States who are seeing an influx of immigrants for the very first time will enjoy stronger economic growth, among other benefits, if they adapt to shifting populations.

Representative Honda eloquently explained this at the introduction of his legislation in 2008, stating, “As a country of immigrants we have always depended upon newcomers to fuel our progress…legislation that provides them educational tools is logical and good for our country…Their success is America’s success, and we should invest in it through sound education policies such as this.”

The U.S. lags behind the E.U. in terms of integration policy, but is starting to make a step forward. President Obama’s 2010 budget allocates $10 million for a new citizenship program, for example. Read more about what the U.S. is doing to integrate its newcomers here.

A professor at the University of British Columbia tackles the idea of equal opportunity employment in a recent study. It turns out, you’re much more likely to get a callback after submitting a resume simply by having a perceived “white” and not foreign name.

As part of his research, the professor tailored 6,000 mock resumes to specific job requirements in 20 occupational categories and sent them to employers with online job postings in the Greater Toronto area.

Each resume listed a bachelor’s degree and up to six years’ experience but the study found resumes with names like Jill Wilson or John Martin received interview callbacks 40 per cent more often than identical resumes with names like Sana Khan or Lei Li.

The study mirrors another published in 2003 by the National Bureau of Economics Research, in which researchers found that job applicants with African-American sounding names tended to get 10 callbacks while applicants with white names got 15.

Click here to read the summary of the research “Employers’ Replies to Racial Names.”

Many undocumented workers have learned a valuable lesson after being injured on the job: “Don’t be afraid to talk to a lawyer.”

CNN reports that two undocumented workers recently won settlements totaling $3.85 million after suffering workplace accidents. Undocumented workers suffer accidents and death disproportionally due largely to lack of safety protections. Illegal or not, they have the same right to claim damages as citizens or legal residents.

Although it is illegal for an employer to knowingly hire a worker who is undocumented, according to the New York City Mayor’s Office of Immigration Affairs, if an undocumented worker is hired by an employer, he or she then has the right to be paid minimum wage and overtime, the right to health protection and workplace safety, and the right to organize to improve labor conditions.

“Each of these men was injured in the course of their work on construction sites, and their immigration status was irrelevant to their right to seek redress for those injuries,” [Brian] O’Dwyer explained in a statement. “Enforcing laws requiring a safe workplace serves the interests of all Americans, whether they are citizens or not.”

These settlements bring much needed notice to unsafe conditions at work-sites (especially in construction) that undocumented workers face. Employers should be encouraged to make sure all workers understand how to protect themselves.

Read the full story here.

Dr. Pauline W. Chen writes for the New York Times that during the care of a liver transplant patient named Armando, she would often use the few words she knew in Spanish and gestures to communicate. Admittedly, asking “Dolor?” and giving a thumbs up was a shortcut that she and many doctors resort to when time and resources are short.

Doctors may not know how much this shortcut can compromise a patient’s well being.

For over a decade now, researchers have documented the effects of language barriers on health care. Patients who speak English poorly or not at all face longer hospital stays, an increased risk of misdiagnoses and medical errors, and decreased access to acute and preventive care services, often regardless of socioeconomic or insurance status. These disparities exist, in part, because of a lack of access to trained medical interpreters and translation services.

But according to a new study published in The Journal of General Internal Medicine, doctors’ assumptions about communication — what they deem important in a conversation — may also have a role.

The study points out that many doctors neglect to use an interpreter simply because they don’t deem it important. If they can get by with minimal language skills for a quick check-in with a patient, they assume, why bother?

The fact is, everyone wants to talk to their doctor. Click here to read what doctors and hospitals are doing to understand their patients.

A library exhibit in Kissimmee charting the history of Puerto Rican culture in Florida from the mid-20th century until the 80s provides a glimpse into one of the cultures that has had a strong influence on the state.  The exhibit seeks to educate about Puerto Ricans and their culture as well as dispel some stereotypes people have of those from this U.S. territory.

Language wasn’t the only challenge - stereotypes were a problem, too.

“Puerto Ricans in Central Florida have also repeatedly encountered in their new neighbors a lack of knowledge about Puerto Rico’s history and its relation to the U.S.,” the exhibit notes. “Light skinned Puerto Ricans were told that they don’t look Puerto Rican.” And even though Puerto Ricans have been U.S. citizens since 1917, “Lawyer James Auffant was asked for his green card when he applied for a job with Orange County in 1977,” the liner notes state.

To read more details about the exhibit and snippets about the unique culture and contributions of Puerto Ricans, click here.

Cheskin Consulting recently posted in their blog about the Hispanic naming system.  Typically, Hispanics born in Latin America are given four names: a first, a middle, and two surnames, one from the maternal line and the other from the paternal.  But since, in the U.S., we’ve got a different naming system, many Latino immigrants lose parts of their names.  And blog author, Maria Parra, finds that in losing their second name, they lose a bit of their culture and identity.

So what? Well, when Hispanics move to the US, their middle name automatically becomes just an initial, it disappears from documents, and from their life. It was my situation when I first moved to the U.S., I would introduce myself as “Maria Lucia” and people would spontaneously answer “hi Maria” and “Lucia” disappeared from all my documents; suddenly I became “Maria L.” That never happened to me before coming to this country and at the beginning it sounded weird.

While I understand the author’s lament at losing part of her name, I’ve found that the loss of one of the surnames can be more critical and confusing.  In fact, because in the States, non-Hispanics usually use the last surname, that of the maternal line, people are often misidentified. 

When working with Latinos, it’s important to keep in mind that many have both surnames on their official documents (sans hyphen) and often don’t recognize the use of only their maternal surname.

To read the entire blog post, click here.

The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials found that nearly half of the newly naturalized American citizens in 2008 were Latino.  The agency used data from the Department of Homeland Security to compile their report and credits a few different factors for the increase:

In a report released in March, the agency attributed the record number of new citizens to the nearly 1.4 million citizenship applications it received in 2007. Most were from people who wanted to beat a $265 increase in the citizenship application fee, from $330 to $595.

 

But the department also credited “special efforts” by Hispanic media, community groups and a union with high immigrant membership, all of which urged eligible permanent residents to pursue citizenship.

These stats stand in contrast to the prevailing myth that immigrants, particularly those from Spanish-speaking countries, do not want to fully participate in civic life in America.

To read the entire article, click here.

You can’t get much more straightforward than check boxes on applications.  Unless those check boxes refer to ethnicity or race and you are one of the millions of people in the U.S. who could check off multiple boxes to describe yourself.  Washington area schools are allowing new students to describe themselves as multiracial yet soem are concerned that this system will make it more difficult to track populations which historically fal behind.

Many civil rights advocates agree that it’s necessary to document the growing number of multiracial students, but they say these categories will mask valuable information about race that could be used to analyze educational challenges some groups face. They say it would be more accurate to report the data in detail, with racial and ethnic combinations.

“If we don’t know that some multiracial, Hispanic and black students are doing worse,” said Melissa Herman, a sociologist at Dartmouth College, “we can conveniently ignore that they are doing worse.”

Education Department officials have said the new rules strike a balance, providing more details about students without creating an overly cumbersome reporting system.

I understand their concerns about losing critical data that may allow districts to provide more assistance to populations that are lagging behind.  But being multiracial is more and more common, and this argument really pushes that fact to the side. 

To read the entire Washington Post article, click here.

Though only 3% of Baton Rouge children are Hispanic, that’s almost double the pre-Katrina percentage.  School bus drivers are responding to the language barrier by taking Spanish classes so they can communicate with children and their parents. 

While many of the drivers spoken about in an online Louisiana periodical are pleased that learning Spanish opens their horizons, they’ve got the immediate gratification of being able to communicate their message to their small riders.

Both said they are excited to learn how to speak some Spanish as a way to broaden their overall knowledge, but their immediate concern is about trying to communicate with their often unruly student riders. Lee rattled off the Spanish phrases she wants to know right away.

“Sit down, sit down right now,” Lee said, laughing. “Be quiet. I’m calling your parents. Put that down there. This is my last warning.”

To read the entire article, click here.

A recent article in the Washington Post detailed the brain drain that the U.S. is experiencing as talented professionals return to their countries of origin.  And the O.C. Register describes the effect that the large numbers of Mexican immigrants departing has on both the immigrants themselves as well as the businesses that cater to them. 

Both articles mention the industries that suffer when immigrants depart. 

From the first article:

Why does all this matter? Because just as the United States has relied on foreigners to underwrite its deficit, it has also depended on smart immigrants to staff its laboratories, engineering design studios and tech firms. An analysis of the 2000 Census showed that although immigrants accounted for only 12 percent of the U.S. workforce, they made up 47 percent of all scientists and engineers with doctorates. What’s more, 67 percent of all those who entered the fields of science and engineering between 1995 and 2006 were immigrants. What will happen to America’s competitive edge when these people go home?

From the second:

The financial downturn has hit immigrants especially hard because many of the industries that employed them, such as construction, have taken a severe nose dive, said Jorge Chapa, director of the Illinois-based Center on Democracy in a Multiracial Society.

Of course, it’s too soon to see the long term effect of this immigrant exodus, but I wonder if native born Americans will get the skills to fill the high tech positions and the gumption to fill the labor-oriented positions.