Contrary to the argument that a lot of anti-immigrant people tend to make — that Latino immigrants “don’t want to learn English” — some new data from the Pew Hispanic Center.

Hispanics by a large margin believe that immigrants have to speak English to be a part of American society and even more so that English should be taught to the children of immigrants, according to recent surveys conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center.

The endorsement of the English language, both for immigrants and for their children, is strong among all Hispanics regardless of income, party affiliation, fluency in English or how long they have been living in the United States.

In a fact sheet published yesterday, Pew’s study reveals that not only does the clear majority of Latino immigrants think immigrants should learn English, they think it moreso than Latinos born in the U.S.:

A clear majority of Latinos (57%) believe that immigrants have to speak English to be a part of American society while a significant minority (41%) says that they do not. Latino immigrants are slightly more likely (57%) to say that immigrants have to learn English than native-born Latinos (52%). The view that immigrants have to learn English is held by a majority of Latinos regardless of how much money they make or their level of education, according to the 2004 National Survey of Latinos: Politics and Civic Education.

When it comes to kids, immigrants are more insistent that children learn English than U.S.-born Latinos: 96% to 88%.

Some other interesting tidbits: though the difference isn’t huge, there are slight changes in the responses when broken down by party affiliation (more Republicans than Democrats think English is necessary) or religion (more Protestants than Catholics).

You can download the whole factsheet at the Pew web site.

Via / Pew Hispanic Center