And if immigrants don't adopt the language of their new country, it's very likely they haven't assimilated and don't intend to assimilate. In the case of recent immigrants to this country, it's now pretty clear they're not assimilating and have no plans to get on with it. This week, the Washington Times published a story about the language enclaves developing in the United States precisely because of unassimilated immigrants. It turns out that there are some 300 different languages now spoken in this country, and as of 1990, some 31.6 million people who speak them. That's one seventh of the entire population, and that was 10 years ago.
Today there are a lot more.
More than ever, modern America is multilingual. You don't really need newspapers to tell you that. Go to the bank in most metropolitan areas, and the teller machine asks you which language you want to do business in. Churches, shopping centers, and many stores and restaurants sport signs and ads in languages other than the mother tongue. Immigration is the overwhelming reason for the sprouting of the linguistic jungle in America, but there are also other forces at work.