Posted on July 10, 2015

Report: Half of Immigrants in the U.S. Have Limited English Proficiency

Caroline May, Breitbart, July 9, 2015

Half of the immigrants in the United States have limited English proficiency (LEP), according to a new report from the Migration Policy Institute.

According to the most recent data, of the the total 41.3 million immigrants in the United States in 2013 about half, 20.4 million, spoke English less than “very well.”

The report notes that LEP individuals tend to be less educated and poorer than English speakers.

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While LEP residents accounted for about 8 percent of the total population in the U.S., the Migration Policy Institute reports that California had the highest percentage with LEP people making up 19 percent of the population. Texas had the second highest percentage at 14 percent, followed by New York and Hawaii both with 13 percent.

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“Spanish was the predominant language spoken by both immigrant and U.S.-born LEP individuals. About 64 percent (16.2 million) of the total LEP population spoke Spanish, followed by Chinese (1.6 million, or 6 percent), Vietnamese (847,000, 3 percent), Korean (599,000, 2 percent), and Tagalog (509,000, 2 percent). Close to 80 percent of the LEP population spoke one of these five languages,” the report reads.

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