Poor English Skills Holding Back Immigrants in Worcester

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Nicholas Handy, GoLocalWorcester Contributor

Immigrants and immigrant families in Worcester and throughout the United States are continuing to be held back by language barriers, destroying opportunities for them to grow and succeed in modern culture.

According to a new study released by the Brooking Institution, 8.4-percent of the current United States adult population lack the current language skills to get a good-paying job.

“National, state, and regional leaders can enhance both the human capital and economic mobility of their current and future workforce by investing in English instruction,” said Jill H. Wilson, senior research analyst and associate fellow, and author of the report. “As the nation discusses how to build a skilled workforce, a focus on enabling immigrants to become more productive members of society will help everyone in the long run.”

According to the report, there are 36,962 Limited English Proficient (LEP) adults living in Worcester as of 2012, representing a 31.6-percent increase from 2000. Over 80-percent of these LEP adults have not graduated college and 24.6-percent have not completed high school.

Results

Key findings of the study show that immigrants and their families are at a clear disadvantage.

Nearly one in ten US working aged adults are currently considered LEP. LEP adults earn 25 to 40-percent less than their English-speaking counterparts and most of the LEP working adults are working in the labor force.

“Given the large number of LEP workers in the United States and the fact that virtually all of the growth in the U.S. labor force over the next four decades is projected to come from immigrants and their children, it is in our collective interest to tackle this challenge head on,” says Wilson.

Worcester Impact

One of the largest problems facing Worcester is the lack of English learning opportunities throughout the city, coupled with the lack of diversity in teachers, community leaders, etc.

According to Mary Jo Marion, Executive Director of the Latino Education Institute in Worcester, many of the immigrants coming to Worcester attempt to learn the language, but are faced with challenges because there are not enough free programs in the city to provide proper language education to the people that need it. Additionally, families often struggle to integrate into schools and the community because of these language barriers; there are simply not enough dual language teachers in staff members throughout the city to ease communication, something that often leads to struggles integrating into society and getting a proper education.

“We have a free ESL classes that we provide to residents of Worcester, but we can only take 300 at a time,” said Marion. “One of the largest issues in Worcester is not having anywhere for immigrants to learn the language. Immigrants are also a group that typically gets marginalized; many of them work together in the same industries and suffer from the same problems.”

Poor English Skills Holding Back Immigrants in Worcester

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