A Multilingual Houston, A Better Houston

Alas, Houston has lived up to its reality -- as the most diverse city in the country, Mayor Annise Parker announced yesterday that the city will begin providing critical city information in the 5 most critical language other than English.

"This is about making sure different populations have access to critical services," Mayor Parker said, noting this would help people better access health and safety issues, how to navigate the municipal courts, understand a bus schedule, and convey information to emergency respondents.

 The Mayor announced the multilingual initiative at a press conference that culminated with the signing of  Executive Order 1-17 in which the Department of Neighborhoods will help determine which 5 languages are most needed. The program is set to roll out over the next 6 months. (This is where public-non-profit partnerships come in. The Mayor signed the document flanked by some of Houston's leading public servants from non-profits and educational institutions.)


While the Mayor acknowledged practically everything is already available in Spanish, the City will identify the languages that are most needed, not necessarily the most spoken. For example, she said Hindi is spoken mostly by Indian and Pakistani immigrant groups, but those groups also came from a country where English was taught in schools.

My Predictions on the Top 5 Languages

I did a little research using Census 2010 data on the languages might be "most needed." The Census Bureau defines someone as having Limited English Proficiency if they reported "speaks English less than very well" on the Census. A look at the data from Houston metropolitan area (includes Sugar Land and Baytown) revealed 7 ethnic groups where over half of the population reported "speaks English less than very well." (See table)

2007-2011 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates							Percentage of Limited English Proficiency within group
Spanish or Spanish Creole:			1,535,601			+/-6,272
Speak English less than "very well"			767,960			+/-6,922	50.01%
Vietnamese:			88,964			+/-3,361
Speak English less than "very well"			53,054			+/-2,145	59.64%
Chinese:			62,331			+/-3,158
Speak English less than "very well"			31,993			+/-1,929	51.33%
Korean:			11,918			+/-1,242
Speak English less than "very well"			6,319			+/-800	53.02%
Mon-Khmer, Cambodian:			4,156			+/-973
Speak English less than "very well"			2,113			+/-591	50.84%
Thai:			3,019			+/-608
Speak English less than "very well"			1,530			+/-332	50.68%
Armenian:			474			+/-229
Speak English less than "very well"			274			+/-172	57.81%
*Table is part of a larger dataset. E-mail Cindy@rogenecalvert.com for more details

Analysis: From this table, it might not be easy to determine which  5 languages are most needed. While percentage wise, these 7 languages indicate a higher need (at least 50% of the group is LEP) among the 40 languages listed in the full table, the number of people in that group is relatively small (i.e. Cambodian, Thai, and Armenian groups have about 2,000 people or less who LEP. This might not warrant full-scale translation and interpretation services. Perhaps City resources are more efficiently spent on another language group with a larger population but lower percentage LEP.

 In short, there's a need within the bottom 3 groups, but the frequency and likelihood that they will access City services is low compared to the top 4 language groups: Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Korean.

Interesting Observations:
In this dataset, I was surprised to see that there were no Hmong living in the Houston metropolitan area. Perhaps some of the people identify as Laotian (which number about 2,200). And there were less than 300 people who reported speaking a Native American language. I thought Texas would have a larger representation. After all, Texas History and Native Americans were an entire unit in the 7th grade public school curriculum when I was in school.

 Multilingual Access: the Evolving Needs of our Time

It seems about right that Houston began this multilingual initiative. While English is still the language of business and will help people better navigate their day-to-day lives, the level of English needed to navigate the court rooms, understand Hurricane warnings and evacuation procedures, or report crime tips is something even native English speakers might have difficulty understanding.

 If I was a victim of a crime, I would want all the witnesses to come forth and speak out. If I was evacuating from a hurricane (like I did in 2005 for Hurricane Rita) I would want other drivers to know the state closed all the highways going into the City and opened it as contraflow lanes so that everyone can evacuate safely and efficiently.

Economically, Houston will gain from its rich diversity. It's about being a better host city to its growing international profile. As a city that speaks more than 100 languages, has more than 90 consulates, and a growing number of investments, immigrants and refugees from abroad, it's about time.

According to think tank, Migration Policy Institute, Texas is 2nd in the number of individuals with Limited English Proficiency (LEP). People with  LEP come from diverse countries, can be new immigrants or long-time naturalized citizens, and are members of our society.

 

 I'm thrilled that the City is taking more steps to be inclusive of all individuals in our society. It follows multilingual initiatives of other major cities like San Francisco, New York and all our federal government agencies, with the Presidential Executive Order 13166 that President Clinton signed and every subsequent president has renewed.