ABSTRACT
German, Polish, and Italian immigrants were targeted as threats to cultural unity in the past, as migrants from Mexico, Russia and China are today. The agents vary, but the perceived threat is the same. In the past, these fears have proven
unfounded. In no other country, among 35 nations compared in a detailed study by sociologist Stanley Lieberson and his colleagues, did foreign languages fade as swiftly as in the United States. Linguists such as Joshua Fishman and Calvin Veltman have documented how this process takes place. First-generation immigrants learn as much English as they can, but continue to speak their mother tongue at home. The second generation grows up speaking the mother tongue at home, but English in school and at work. By the third generation, English becomes the home language and the transition to monolingualism is completed.
