Explain The Arguments For And Against Ethnic Enclaves

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English is not the official language of the U.S., but some insist that it should be. What are arguments for and against “English-only”?
All over the United States, there exist ethnic enclaves. An ethnic enclave is defined as “a neighborhood or larger territory whose population is largely distinguished from the surrounding area and its inhabitants” (Castree, Kitchin, and Rogers). A common characteristic of ethnic enclaves is the prevalence of that ethnic group’s language, often to the exclusion of English. For example, someone driving down 10th Street between Vine and Broad might feel as though they’d been transported to China. Similarly, Baltimore has Greektown, Miami has Little Havana, and Boston has the North End. These neighborhoods foster a great sense of community rooted in shared experiences and …show more content…
However, there is a process of “language subordination” whereby some varieties are treated as having less value than others. What do you think?
The process of language subordination is an interesting concept, and can be interpreted several ways depending on the definition of subordination one uses. When one defines subordination as “the act of giving someone or something less importance or power”, language subordination will occur when a language is less widely spoken in a given place. For example, French might be subject to language subordination in the United States simply because English and Spanish are more common, while in Canada, Spanish might become subordinate to English and French. The other potential meaning of language subordination is “the act of placing in a lower rank or position”. In this sense, language subordination might refer to the judgement of a language as inferior. An example of this could be African-American Vernacular English, which is often looked down on due to its unconventional grammar and sentence structures and slang-centric
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