English is the language most Americans have been speaking for centuries. Due to many factors, including the country’s success in both war and trade, that language has become a world language.

Immigrants have flocked to this country both to escape persecution and to find jobs. Those jobs have included fruit picking in Washington state, tech jobs at Microsoft, and prestigious teaching jobs in universities.

American students have benefitted for decades as students from other countries have paid full tuition to gain a degree from a U.S. university.

A significant percentage of American winners of the Nobel prizes in physics, chemistry, and medicine have been immigrants to the United States. According to a study cited in Forbes magazine (October 14, 2020), over a third of these prizes since 2000 have been awarded to immigrants to the United States.

But what happens if the United States closes its doors to the immigrants who have contributed so greatly to its success?

Nicholas Ostler has written a history of languages, Empires of the Word. Beyond question, English is at present a world language. But, as Ostler shows, no magical reason exists for the major language of the United States to continue in its current position.

Writes Ostler: “A language does not grow through the assertion of power, but through the creation of a larger human community.”

Americans been slow to realize how much they owe the country’s strength to the foreigners who have contributed to its businesses, its universities, and its influences.

The advantage that Americans enjoy because their major language is a world language is not a given.