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            Finally, it should be said that this lack of integrating motivation is not always the responsibility of the immigrant group. The process of linguistic assimilation is a double standard. Immigrants not only depend on the motivation of the group, but also of the policy of integration of the receiving society. Even in case this policy is of determined assimilation, as is the case of the U.S., if the occupational expectations of the first generation Hispanics do not go beyond the inferior layers of the occupational scale, the reasonable reaction of the Hispanic immigrant is of not trying to improve their English, since the expectations of applying it are little. This brings about a vicious circle in which it is difficult to determine if the lack of labor promotion is linked to the lack of linguistic competition, or if there is no linguistic competition due to the lack of labor opportunities. A situation that sometimes appears among first generation immigrant groups is known as semibilingualism. First generation Hispanic immigrants evoke it when they affirm, “We are forgetting the Spanish language, and we have not yet learned English.”

            On the other hand, the model of social distance proposed by Schumann (1976a) explains the precarious acquisition of the English language on behalf of the first generation Hispanics in a more comprehensive way. Schumann constructed his model of social distance based on a series of variables like the degree of congruency of the cultures of the immigrant group and the receiving society, the greater or smaller proximity between both languages in contact, the project of permanence, the regime of establishment, and the level of associationism of the immigrant group. The measurement of these variables in social range scales predicts the greater or smaller probability that one immigrant group is going to acquire the second language. In the studies made among first generation Hispanic groups in last the three decades of the 20 th century, the values of social distance of Hispanics, with relation to the North American society, was higher than the average, which suggests that the ample segments of the first generation Hispanic groups have never reached a sufficient control of English as a second language. Some informants express this situation in a taciturn way: “If the Anglos do not learn Spanish, why should I have to learn English?” And it is true that the Hispanic bubble of Los Angeles is of such magnitude (four million Hispanics) that one can take care of all their necessities without the need of learning the English language.

Assimilation of the second generation

In spite of the alerts shot by the North American Natives movement, Official English/English, Only in relation to the presumed resistance of the Hispanic groups to assimilate themselves to the language of the welcoming society, it is necessary to clear that guidelines of assimilation of the English language on behalf of the second generation Hispanics are basically similar to those of any other immigrant group. Fishman (1992) gives proof of this when he affirms that, with the exception of certain isolated demographically insignificant groups, all the ethno-linguistic minorities in the U.S. loses their language of origin almost completely in the second or third generation, once they are settled in the urban North America. In that moment, they not only become habitual English speakers, but in exclusive English speakers. And Hispanics are not an exception to this iron law of the acquisition of the English language (p. 168).

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Source:  OpenStax, Immigration in the united states and spain: consideration for educational leaders. OpenStax CNX. Dec 20, 2009 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11150/1.1
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