Hispanic Immigrants

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It is estimated that there are 11.3 million unauthorized Hispanic immigrants in the United States, making up 3.5% of the country’s population and 23.1% of the children in the country. A vast majority of this population is found in California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, and Texas. According to the United States Department of Homeland Security, an unauthorized immigrant is defined as, “ all foreign-born non-citizen who is not a legal resident.” As of recent studies, there are more than 840,000 immigrant students. In 2012, roughly 7% of the students in K-12 had at least one unauthorized parent living in the United States. Many of these parents make up 5.1% U.S. labor force, along with other immigrants. Hispanic immigrants face many …show more content…
English as a second language causes many learning restraints in the early life of Hispanic immigrants. If a child was brought into the United States younger than the age of 5, with non-English speaking parents, they are more than likely to begin Kindergarten unable to talk English. These children are then classified as ELLs. (English Language Learners) They are placed in English learning classrooms, where they are provided with an ocean of English words. Some students undergo “silent periods” when placed into school, meaning that they listen and try to comprehend. Younger children have a chance of a long silent period, where as older children’s silence could be just for a few weeks. Code switching is also an effect of learning a second language. Code switching consists of the use of both languages in a phrase of sentence, for example, “ I want to go home para poder hangout with my friends.” ( I want to go home so I can hangout with my friends) This is classified as “Spanglish” by most Hispanics. As a child gradually becomes fluent in English, the fluency of their native language may decrease. This process is called subtractive bilingualism, which can cause a negative impact in families due to the fact that many of the immigrant students’ parents are not very successful understanding the English. Non-English speaking plays a vital role in the education of immigrant students. Many of these undocumented students are first-generation college students whose parents are not familiar with the a higher education system, which goes along with students not being well advised about college. (Education Week