Immigrants Learning English in a Time of Anti-Immigrant Sentiment - Part 1 of 3

Oct 15, 2026

The text examines how adult literacy education and ESL learning intersect with U.S. anti-immigrant sentiment during Spring 2019, focusing on immigrants learning English amid restrictive political narratives. It connects immigrants’ economic contributions and skill diversity to policies that reduce refugee resettlement, intensify screening, and expand enforcement through raids. It argues that framing immigrants as potential security threats increases fear, anxiety, and misinformation, making humanitarian obligations harder to honor and complicating legal, employment, travel, and re-entry experiences for both documented and undocumented immigrants.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages6

Reading Time15 min

AccessFree to download

Immigrants Learning English in a Time of Anti-Immigrant Sentiment

Immigrants’ economic and skill contributions

Policy shifts and anti-immigrant rhetoric

Enforcement practices and impacts on immigrant communities

Criminalizing ideology and humanitarian implications

Fear, anxiety, and consequences for documented and undocumented immigrants

ADULT LITERACY EDUCATION Spring 2019 Forum: Immigration and ESL (Part 1 of 3) Immigrants Learning English in a Time of Anti-Immigrant Sentiment Clarena Larrotta, Texas State University Immigrants bring a wide variety of skills that favor the market productivity and add to the economic life of the country. They contribute to the development of the U.S. economy through the skills they bring to the market (cognitive skills such as abstract thinking, non-cognitive skills such as motivation and initiative, and specific skills such as the ability to operate machinery) and through the small business they own. Lancee and Bol (2017, p. 696) assert that different types of skills are relevant on the labor market: cognitive skills, non-cognitive skills, and specific skills. Likewise, Costa, Cooper, and Shierholz (2014) explain that: Immigrants have an outsized role in U. S. economic output because they are disproportionately likely to be working and are concentrated among prime working ages. Indeed, despite being 13 percent of the population, immigrants comprise 16 percent of the labor force…the share of immigrant workers who own small businesses is slightly higher than the comparable share among U. S.-born workers. Immigrants comprise 18 percent of small business owners. (p. 3) Despite being a significant force in the development of the economy and the contribution they make to the demographic diversification and cultural growth of the country, immigrants are currently not welcome in the United States. In fact, in 2016, the United States resettled 97,000 refugees; however, this number dramatically decreased in 2017 when it resettled only 33,000 refugees (Pew Research Center, 2018). This decrease in numbers is the product of new immigration policies aiming to further restrict who enters the country. Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign was full of anti-immigrant rhetoric particularly against Mexicans and Muslims (Kteily & Bruneau, 2017). As reported by the Homeland Security webpage: On March 6, 2017, the President issued a Memorandum for the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, and the Secretary of Homeland Security on Implementing Immediate Heightened Screening and Vetting of Applications for Visas and Other Immigration Benefits, Ensuring Enforcement of All Laws for Entry into the United States, and Increasing Transparency among Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government and for the American People. To no one’s surprise, after his election, President Trump´s administration has issued repressive and punitive policies and has encouraged raids performed by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) throughout the country. ICE manages detentions and the removal of people who have already been arrested for immigration violations. However, recently, ICE has targeted community centers, among Correspondance: Clarena Larrotta, [larrotta@txstate.edu](larrotta@txstate.edu) 53 other places, offering education services to the immigrant community, and workplaces where immigrants are known to attend. This shift in ideology criminalizing immigration has made it more difficult for the United States to honor its humanitarian obligations when the assumption is that refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants in general, are potential terrorists. The public, in particular those who lack information and knowledge about the complexities of immigration and the many reasons why people migrate, may end up believing what they hear from official government sources who are against immigration and immigrants. As Olivia Waxman (2018) writes in her report for Time,“placing immigration in the national security sector reveals a changed focus on the idea of potential safety threats represented by immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees.” Waxman further explains that: If immigration is an economic or work-force issue, it would make sense to place it under the oversight of departments that deal with those issues. Placing

FAQs

How do the text’s economic arguments connect to immigrants learning English?

It highlights that immigrants bring diverse skills that strengthen U.S. productivity and small business activity, framing English learning within broader labor-market and community contributions.

What policy and rhetoric changes are described as driving anti-immigrant sentiment?

The text cites reduced refugee resettlement, heightened visa and immigration screening, and anti-immigrant rhetoric in political messaging that portrays immigrants as security threats.

How does enforcement affect immigrant communities and education services?

It states that policies have encouraged raids and that ICE has targeted places such as community centers and workplaces where immigrants attend, including offering education services.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Chumphorn