Why one-third of the Chinese in the United States have limited English proficiency

Why one-third of the Chinese in the United States have limited English proficiency (Alberta Times) According to incomplete statistics, the total number of Chinese in the United States is close to 4 million, but...

Why do one-third of Chinese in the United States have limited English proficiency (Alberta Times) According to incomplete statistics, the total number of Chinese in the United States is close to 4 million. However, the "Immigration Policy Institute" in Washington recently released a report on the population with limited English proficiency based on the results of the Census Bureau and the American Social Survey (ACS). Among the 25 million people over the age of five with limited English proficiency in 2010, 16.52 million people spoke Spanish, followed by 1.548 million people who spoke Chinese, accounting for 6.1%. The Chinese-speaking population ranks second in California, New York, New Jersey, Washington, South Carolina, Utah and Alabama. That is to say, among the nearly 4 million Chinese in the United States, nearly 1.55 million Chinese have limited English proficiency. The proportion of new Chinese immigrants with limited English proficiency is higher than in the past. First of all, the number of Chinese immigrants has increased significantly in the past decade. Half a century ago, the top five people born outside the United States in terms of origin were from Europe. But now among immigrants, the top five are from Latin America and Asia, namely Mexico, China, the Philippines, India, and Cuba. Immigrants from China (including Taiwan and Hong Kong) ranked second. Secondly, Chinese immigrants to the United States are increasingly choosing to live in Chinese-gathering areas, such as New York and California. More and more Chinese are gathering in certain residential areas, and the various service facilities and institutions in the area are becoming more and more complete. This allows many Chinese to survive without knowing much or even no English. This phenomenon existed in old Chinatowns in the past, but now it has become more common with the increase in the number of Chinese and the expansion of Chinese districts. Although the U.S. government has been working hard to assimilate immigrants into American society, facts have proven that the more immigrants are concentrated in places, the slower and less complete the assimilation is. One of the manifestations of this is that many new Chinese immigrants have no or very limited English skills. The closed mentality towards the outside world also makes many Chinese people not pay attention to improving their English skills. Many Chinese people have always lived in Chinese circles, with narrow social communication circles, and have gradually become a marginalized group in society, making it more difficult to integrate into mainstream society. Not knowing English means that many Chinese people have no idea what is happening in American society, and are unclear about many laws and regulations, which affects the quality of life. For example, because they feel unable to communicate with the police, they often choose not to report the case when encountering robberies and other accidents. This objectively encourages criminals to regard the Chinese as a weak and bullied ethnic group. Etc. In addition, whether Chinese people are willing to study English hard has a lot to do with their willingness to assimilate. Scholar Leon Bouvier once listed the naturalization rates of immigrants of various races based on statistical data. The first place is Filipinos with 76.2%, and the second place is Koreans. The third place is Chinese, with a naturalization rate of 68.5%. That is to say, for every 100 Chinese immigrants, only 68.5 are naturalized as U.S. citizens, and the remaining 31.5 may be unwilling or have not yet naturalized for various reasons. Obviously, if you hope to become a naturalized U.S. citizen and then integrate into American society, considerable English proficiency is necessary. If the willingness is not strong, or various other reasons, such as age, education level, length of time in the United States, etc., will affect or limit the Chinese's desire to learn English, the result will be limited English ability.