When immigrants are limited in English, they must rely entirely on the heritage language to pass on values, advice, and traditions to their children. Yet many immigrant youth tend to rely primarily on English, losing skills in their parents or grandparents only medium of expression. In such cases, neither generation can make itself understood. 5 Career advantages. As our marketplace becomes globalized and our population more diverse, bilingualism and biliteracy are valued increasingly by employers.
Similar patterns prevail in California, Texas, New York, and other immigrant-rich states.
Besides opportunities in international business, bilinguals have a growing edge in the domestic job market, especially in science, technology, tourism, social services, and education. Maintaining skills in the heritage language opens worlds of experience that would otherwise be inaccessible not only literature, art, and music, but also the daily life of ethnic communities. In the case of Native peoples, it can even determine whether those worlds survive. Instructional programs, however effective in themselves, may prove insufficient to counteract the social pressures to assimilate into the dominant culture. This hypothesis has yet to be fully tested, owing to limited research on school-based approaches.