A Gallup poll released today shows that almost 3/4 of adults say it is ‘essential’ that immigrants learn to speak English. Twenty-four percent say it is ‘important’ and 2% say it is not important. The survey was conducted June 13-July 5 of 4,373 adults.
More notable are the difference broken out by sub-group:
% Essential
White 77%
Black 67%
Hispanic 58%
Democrats 65%
Independents 71%
Republicans 85%
There appears to be a correlation (I don’t have the dataset so I can’t test for sure) between citizenship and the belief it is essential to master the English language. The closer one is to immigration, either as an immigrant or having a parent as an immigrant, the less likely one is to think it is essential to learn English.
% Essential
US Immigrant 59%
One/Both Parents Immigrants 64%
Self/Parent born in US 75%
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