Last Friday Nashville’s population soundly defeated a measure to require the local government to only conduct business in English. The measure, which was defeated 41,752 votes to 32,144, would have made Nashville the largest U.S. city to accept such a measure. As reported by the BBC, Nashville is home to 60,000 immigrants whose first language is not English. Additionally, the city is home to 11,000 Kurdish Americans – the largest such concentration in the United States.
Congratulations to the citizens of Nashville for voting down such an ill conceived measure. The measure’s defeat is the latest demonstration that Americans realize using the proverbial “stick” to force English upon immigrants is a flawed and shortsighted policy. Assimilating immigrants into American society will be more readily accomplished through openness and acceptance than through hostility and wariness.