Americanization for Immigrants: Bad for Business
By definition, americanization is assimilation into American culture. It could mean adopting American practices (such as driving on the right side of the road or asking for ice in your drink at a restaraunt), respecting American cultures (such as the right to go to the church of your choosing if and when you please) or speaking the English language (which, though not the official American language, is spoken by the majority of the population). Certainly, early immigrants in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries put forth their best effort at learning the language and made great progress toward doing so, even if there are still pockets of Polish speakers in Chicago and German speakers in Pennsylvania.
Some changes have occurred since those times, though. For starters, winning the Spanish-American war of 1898 and annexing Puerto Rico meant that an entire island of American citizens grew up with Spanish as their native language. Lax immigration policies with Spanish-speaking nations in close proximity, such as Cuba and Mexico, also led to an influx of native Spanish speakers.
Why didn’t these speakers of another language switch over to the English language like their predecesors, though? The answer to this question lies not (as in olden days) in the difficulty of the English language or the “can’t teach an old dog new tricks” syndrome, but more accurately in the simple fact that they didn’t *HAVE* to learn the language.
Early immigrants had only two choices: either learn English and communicate, or do without the goods and services which couldn’t be obtained without communication. Because critical physiological needs (like obtaining food) and social needs required interaction with others, the only choice was to learn to communicate. Today’s immigrants, however, face an entirely different culture: one driven by corporate governance and the attitude that profit is important above all else.
There is little doubt that profit has become the driving force behind the actions of every business and nearly every citizen in today’s United States. With entire generations of American citizens growing up with Spanish as their native language (thanks to the Spanish-American war and other policies mentioned above), an increasingly larger portion of shoppers in American stores prefer to speak a language other than English. Daring not to miss out on the dollars offered up by these foreign speakers, businesses are scrambling to accomodate them. After all, today’s culture would frown on missing an opportunity to profit from their spending.
As more and more businesses accomodate the Spanish-speaking customers (it is now possible to order fast food, shop at a grocery store and buy clothes exclusively in Spanish), the need to assimilate into the English-speaking majority fades away. This process erodes the role that speaking a common language plays in the process of Americanization, much to the dismay of those resistant to change.
Many of these conservatives are spending precious time pondering what can be done about the perceived assault on our established culture. In reality, there are only two ways to address this issue: either sacrifice the profit garnered by accomodating Spanish speakers or put up a sign that reads, “Se habla Espanol.”
