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Location: Huntersville/Charlotte, NC and Washington, DC
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Spanish Becoming Language of Miami - AOL News (broken link)
Honestly, this really scares me. This story could be repeated in other parts of the country if something aint done. This is already reality in one neighborhood of the city i live in (Alexandria, VA.)
English - make it official. It's the language of business and commerce, of official documents, etc. I have nothing against speaking whatever languages you want, but language is a common bond that we need in this country of such diversity. The language that everyone should be able to speak at the least is English, in this country. We need to do this asap or language barriers will only increase.
I have an easier time finding people who speak English in Cancun than Miami. It is a shame because it will prevent many people from moving to Miami who dont know Spanish. I would love to move back to South Florida but am afriad that I will not be able to find a job and will be discriminated against at work. The immigrants there dont even make an attempt to assimilate and now they have taken over the county and demand everyone conform to them.
Miami is undergoing a case of white flight in relationship to more Latino immigrant influx, Los Angeles went through this in the 90's. Northern Florida is like Alabama, Central Florida is like Colorado, and South Florida is California in terms of diversity.
Spanish Becoming Language of Miami - AOL News (broken link)
Honestly, this really scares me. This story could be repeated in other parts of the country if something aint done. This is already reality in one neighborhood of the city i live in (Alexandria, VA.)
Sadly, Alanboy, this phenomenon has existed in South Florida, mainly Miami, for many many years and our leaders have chosen to ignore it. Similar to Los Angeles, some areas of Miami look like a "third world" war zone with many residents blatantly refusing to assimilate much less learn to speak English.
Bottom line . . . THEIR LOSS because they will always remain "second class citizens" which is what they claim they wanted to avoid when they emigrated here.
I live in an area with a large immigrant population from the Balkans. Sure they all speak Bosnian, or Croation when they are together, which is fine. But they all also speak English. And they came here as refugees, many of whom had the choice of coming here or getting killed. I have known immigrants from all over the world, and they all learn English.
I don't understand why some people come here by choice, yet refuse to learn a new language. I don't actually blame the immigrants for not learning English. I blame the government for bending over backwards to accomidate illegals.
They'll stop coming if we stop providing for them.
Miami and El Paso show that assimilation isn't happening. Both these towns are becoming more Spanish speaking not less. Miami began taking in Cuban refugees in the 1950's and 1960's and after 50-60 years they are not learning English.
Assimilation happens in Miami just as it happens everywhere else. EVERY SINGLE LAST HISPANIC PERSON with whom I grew up whose parents spoke little/poor English speaks English fluently and in most cases, better than Spanish. My parents were born and raised in the US so I grew up in an English-speaking home. However, many of my friends spoke Spanish in the home and English virtually everywhere else - at school, on the baseball field, at the mall, and on the phone with friends. Well over 90% of my Hispanic friends are assimilated Americans, and the other 10% did not grow up here - they grew up either in Spain or Latin America and are recent immigrants to the US.
The only reason Miami has become "more Spanish speaking" is due to the constant flow of Spanish-speaking immigrants. Just because the percentage of Spanish-speaking residents goes up doesn't mean that the number of English-speaking residents or assimilated Americans goes down as well. [Saying otherwise is faulty logic.] Since most children of these immigrants (who all learn fluent English) speak Spanish at least at a basic level, the percentage of Spanish-speakers continues to rise. There is nothing wrong with this! I am very proud of myself and many of my bilingual friends for being in the small minority of Americans who are functionally bilingual and can use those skills in our professional careers. Miami is a special place because there, becoming American doesn't mean forgetting your cultural heritage - that is something of which I am very proud.
Not knowing Spanish in Miami-Dade County really isn't that much of a hassle. My sister speaks minimal Spanish and gets around just fine. Though many older people and "fresh off the boat" very recent immigrants will speak Spanish much better than English, they can usually speak English well enough to give you directions, answer your questions in a store, or take your order in a restaurant. Miami isn't Latin America, it's America with a strong Latin twist.
Miami is undergoing a case of white flight in relationship to more Latino immigrant influx, Los Angeles went through this in the 90's. Northern Florida is like Alabama, Central Florida is like Colorado, and South Florida is California in terms of diversity.
What has happened over many years (not just recently) in Miami-Dade County is not "white flight" in the traditional sense because it has occurred very slowly and has produced neighborhoods with the some of the best Hispanic/non-Hispanic white residential integration of any metro area in the United States. What this means is that the average Hispanic resident lives in a neighborhood with a percentage of non-Hispanic white residents that almost exactly matches the countywide average, and that the average non-Hispanic white resident lives in a neighborhood with a percentage of Hispanic residents that is very close to the countywide average as well. I would be glad to demonstrate this with statistics if anyone here would like that.
Technically, many neighborhoods have experienced no "white flight" at all because (if speaking of "white" racially) most Hispanics in Miami-Dade County are white and moved into already existing non-Hispanic white neighborhoods. What this produced is a drop in non-Hispanic residents, an (often dramatic) increase in Hispanic residents, but often no drop in white residents at all. What happened in Miami-Dade had to do with shifting demographics and is very distinct from "white flight" in its traditional sense (Newark, Detroit, etc.)
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