Lost in Translation: Language Segregation in the United States
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The large, diverse, and growing Hispanic population in the United States spans a range language backgrounds and contexts. Based on American Community Survey (ACS) responses, approximately 60% of Hispanic people either speak English “very well” or only speak English, while the remaining 40% either speak English “well,” “not well,” or not at all. Do Hispanic residents in urban areas report varying levels of English language use depending on where they live? In order to understand individual-level variation in English language use in the Hispanic population, Pedroza will introduce a measure of language segregation using ACS contextual data. By comparing the spatial distribution of Hispanic residents (by each level of English language use) across census tracts in urban areas, he will examine whether Hispanic language skills are related to their local context. Language segregation captures, for example, how far apart Hispanics who only speak English live from Hispanics who speak another language. Pedroza finds that Hispanic residents living high levels of language segregation are either more or less likely to report speaking English, depending on where they live across metro areas.
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