The United States Census Bureau identified African languages as among the top 10 fastest growing languages in America. Due to this, the 2020 census guides of the US will now be printed in three more languages of Yoruba, Igbo, and Twi instead of the five East and South Africa languages the 2010 census guides were printed.
The new groups of African languages that are widest spoken in homes across America are –
- Swahili and other Central/Eastern/Southern African languages
- Yoruba, Twi, Igbo, and other Western African languages
- Amharic/Somali
The top 10 group fastest-growing languages spoken in American homes are –
- Swahili and other Central/Eastern/Southern African languages – 22%
- Malayalam, Kannada, and other Dravidian languages – 16%
- Bengali – 16%
- Tamil – 13%
- Yoruba, Twi, Igbo, and other Western African languages – 13%
- Amharic/Somali – 12%
- Punjabi – 10%
- Telugu – 10%
- Pennsylvania Dutch/Yiddish – 9%
- Hindi – 8%
Population experts adduce the rise in foreign languages in the US to the influx of migrants into the country. The Pew Research Center said the number of black children born in the US has risen from 24% in 2000 to 39% in 2019, doubling every 10 years since 1970. Yet African migrants in the US are not as many as Latino migrants, making Spanish the fastest-growing foreign language spoken in America by reason of the overwhelming population of Latinos.
Although President Donald Trump has imposed travel bans on some African countries and made migrating to the US more difficult, this has not deterred African migrants as well as other migrants from around the world from risking their lives to enter the US through illegal channels. The US Customs and Border Patrol in June said an average of 30-40 African migrants tried to enter the US through the Mexican border each blessed day.
Swahili, Yoruba, and Igbo among other African languages are the fastest-growing tongues in the US because thousands of migrants from Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania, Senegal, and Kenya among others sub-Saharan African countries are moving en masse to the US and Europe.
