irement, along with the requirement of demonstrating knowledge of U.S. history and government. More recently, the scope of English as gatekeeper has again expanded as evidenced in the 1986 Immigration Control and Reform Act (IRCA) which provides the opportunity for undocumented individuals who meet certain requirements to become legal citizens (to gain "amnesty") (McKay & Weinstein-Shr, 1993, Autumn, p. 402).
The recent growth of the information economy and the establishment of English as a worldwide lingua franca for the well-educated and technologically oriented have further emphasized the role of English proficiency in job acquisition, survival skills and educational opportunity. At the same time, recurring periods of anti-immigrant feeling, including the current wave that resulted in legislation restricting services to undocumented immigrants in California and other states, have focused on language differences as well as foreign and racial background. In addition, immigrants of all economic and education levels, even those in a broad ethnic community, bear the burden of social and practical isolation that affects non-English speakers in American society. "I have ears but I am deaf! I have a tongue but I am mute!" complains an elderly Chinese refugee about life in his English-speaking neighborhood as quoted by researchers (McKay & Weinstein-Shr, 1993, Autumn, p. 399.)
But immigrants lacking literacy and basic educational skills in their own language face a double handicap. As a learner at the El Barrio Popular Education Program, quoted in a 1992 study by Guth & Wrigley noted, "At the welfare office, if you say you don't speak English, they hand you something written in Spanish. But if you can't read Spanish, then you still don't know" (Guth Wrigley, 1992, p. 203). Is such a student better off learning English or native-language literacy first? Experts do not always agree, but ultimately, both English and reading skil...