Accent intolerance and occupational achievement in the United States

Abstract

While much of the literature on ethnic pluralism in the United States is focussed on European nationality groups whose migration streams were nearly terminated man]; years ago and which are, albeit arguably, now approaching social as well as cultural assimilation, the ethnic groups which face the most viable choice of a culturally autonomous life in the U.S. are the peoples of the New Immigration, Third World peoples, many from Latin America. Preserving the use of an ethnic language in the home or neighborhood increases the likelihood that a person may have an audible accent in his or her spoken English and might be subjected to accent intolerance. This paper estimates the impact on occupational achievement of variables which put a person at risk of having an accent in spoken English: non-English mother tongue and use of a language other than English in the home. It is found that net of personal characteristics and a person’s ethnicity these variables of language behavior, on the average, do not affect occupational achievement. This finding confirms previous research lvhich indicates that the principal component in discrimination against an accent is the hearer’s reaction to the group to which the accent identifies the speaker as belonging. There is little cost in terms of occupational achievement, on the average, for an ethnic group to maintain the use of its ethnic language in the home.