By Paul Chavez/AP
Four in 10 Californians speak a language other than English in the home — the highest such percentage nationwide, according to a new demographic survey. The Census 2000 Supplementary Survey released publicly on Aug. 6 also found that 8.6 million Californians — or 26 percent of the state’s 33 million residents — were born in a foreign country. More than 5 million people have not gained citizenship.
The figures are fueling new calls for public policy changes to ease the integration of immigrants.
“America can always be interpreted as a Balkanized society and in the end, Balkanization in itself is not bad,” said H. Eric Schockman, a member of the state Little Hoover Commission, which is studying immigrant integration and intends to make recommendations to the Legislature and governor.
“It’s what we do in the civic world and the governance world to bring people into citizenship, with all the rights and responsibilities thereof, that we should be concerned about,” he said.
The Census 2000 Supplementary Survey gathered information from 32 California counties and 700,000 households nationwide. The data was gathered separately from the Census 2000 headcount, and provides estimates of demographic trends expected to be reflected in additional Census 2000 data due out next year.
The survey has minor discrepancies with previously released Census numbers, because it did not include data on residents living in prisons, dormitories and other group quarters.
Hans Johnson, a researcher with the Public Policy Institute of California, analyzed the data and found that language skills in the state varied by age. According to Johnson’s analysis, children between five and 17 speak English and another language more proficiently than adults between 18 and 64.
Although more than 40 percent of children have a language other than English as their native tongue, Johnson found that the vast majority reported speaking English “very well” or “well.”
For adults 18 to 64, about 40 percent had a language other than English as their primary tongue, but their English skills lagged behind children. Among adults who speak Asian and Pacific Island languages, about 22 percent reported speaking English poorly or not at all. Among Spanish speakers, 37 percent reported that they can’t speak English or don’t speak it very well.
“The high number of languages spoken at home other than English is directly attributable to the fact that you have a very large population of children with parents who were born abroad,” said Andres Jimenez, director of the California Policy Research Center. “Children who are born here regularly see family from Mexico and speak to their parents in Spanish. You also see it in the Chinese and Southeast Asian communities.”
Lawmakers and others who develop public policy need to adapt education, health care, housing and transportation strategies to better serve immigrants, Jimenez said.
Concern over immigrants and their future is a fixture at Evans Adult Community School, where more than 20,000 students from 80 different countries enrolled in English as a second language, academic classes and citizenship courses last year.
Spence McIntyre, principal at the perennially overcrowded school, praised his students.
“They are highly motivated and work hard,” he said. “They work all night on the graveyard shift and come in at 5:45 in the morning. They are raising children ... and are going to school at the same time ... We have waiting lists for people.”
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