Language barriers

The United States has long been described as a nation of immigrants. Since colonial times, tens of millions of people from across the world have left their homes and settled in the United States in search of economic opportunity, political or religious freedom, or to reunite with family members. This long history of immigration has made the United States one of the world’s most ethnically and culturally diverse nations, and one aspect of this cultural diversity is the presence of many different languages within its borders.

The US Census Bureau estimated that approximately 22 percent of Americans over the age of five spoke a language other than English at home according to a 2018–22 survey, representing approximately one-fifth of the total US population. Spanish is by far the most commonly spoken language after English, making up 62 percent of those who speak a language other than English at home. Other languages spoken in the home include Chinese (5.1 percent) and Tagalog (2.5 percent).

Overview

The presence of languages other than English in US society has always been controversial, stemming from concerns that a large presence of bilingual and non-English speakers threatens to divide the country’s population along linguistic and cultural lines. This tends to be a highly emotional topic, with some advocates supporting legislation aimed at curtailing multilingualism and establishing English as the nation’s official language. The United States Constitution does not declare an official language, although English has always been the nation’s primary language of government and business.

By 2025, English was the official language in thirty-two states. The movement that is responsible for these state laws dates to 1980, when voters in Miami-Dade County in Florida passed a referendum declaring English as the county’s official language and banning the use of tax dollars to produce traffic signs, election ballots, and other government materials in other languages. The Miami-Dade County referendum followed the influx of several hundred thousand Cuban refugees into the region during the 1960s and 1970s, which led to a large rise in Spanish speakers. California, a popular destination for immigrants from Mexico, Latin America, and Asia, declared English as its official language with the passage of Proposition 63 in 1986. Several other states have followed suit in the years since. Of the eighteen states that have not enacted language legislation, the vast majority are located in the Northeast and upper Midwest regions. However, English-official legislation does not always preclude the use of other languages in addition to the way the Miami-Dade referendum did; it is often more of a symbolic gesture. California, which is an English-official state, still publishes versions of most government documents in Spanish, Chinese, and other common immigrant languages (the Department of Motor Vehicles, for example, offers its written driving test in thirty different languages). In addition, some English-official states, such as Louisiana, Hawaii, and Alaska, have non-English co-official languages.

Arguments in favor of “official English” policies include the belief that such legislation encourages immigrants to assimilate to the ways of their adopted country. Other supporters express frustration at the language barriers that emerge when monolingual English speakers attempt to communicate with persons who have limited proficiency in English. However, critics of “official English” legislation point out that all immigrant groups to the United States throughout its history have undergone a transitional period of assimilation from their native language to immersion in English—the common pattern is that first-generation immigrants speak their native language better than English, their children speak both English and their parents' language with roughly equal proficiency, and their children's children speak English fluently and their grandparents' language poorly if at all. This transitional period, however, is often invisible to onlookers unfamiliar with the gradual nature of assimilation. The 2018–22 Census survey reported that of those who spoke Spanish in the home, 41.6 percent of those age sixty-five and up spoke English very well; 58.3 percent of those between the ages of eighteen and sixty-four spoke English very well; and 79.8 percent of those between the ages of five to seventeen spoke English very well.

After years of debate, President Donald Trump signed an executive order designating English as the official language of the United States in 2025. The decision received a mixed reception, as some supported the move while others were against it. Experts pointed it out that the executive order hinders those who do not speak English or those who are learning the language, as programs and services supporting them could be terminated. Grant funding was cut to many of these programs. Additionally, the administration fired nearly all federal employees who were part of the Department of Education's Office of English Language Acquisition in compliance with the executive order. Despite the designation, the executive order has limits and cannot override language protections codified in law at the state or federal level.

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