A North Texas nonprofit is learning just how much demand there is for expanded English language offerings for the fast-growing immigrant community in Dallas-Fort Worth.
This summer the Storehouse of Collin County offered a pilot program to teach an English as a Second Language (ESL) class to 41 students from six countries – Brazil, Bulgaria, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, and Venezuela.
Each of those students attended four-hour classes every Saturday for ten weeks in a row, and they completed the program earlier this month.
When the pilot program was expanded for the fall, approximately 400 people attempted to register for it within the first hour.
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“I think we miss out on so much when we judge someone for their lack of language, and we don’t see them for who they truly are,” said Ben Skye, Director of Communications and Culture for The Storehouse of Collin County.
According to the Storehouse, more than half of the pilot program’s students have college degrees from their home country but are working more menial jobs to make ends meet here in this country while they study.
“I think we have this perception of people standing in food lines as unskilled or lacking in drive, when we really see a lot of our neighbors are highly educated and have a lot more to offer our communities in terms of expertise, knowledge,” Skye said. “And once they are able to speak and interact in English they can bring the breadth of their knowledge and expertise to the jobs that they are qualified for.”
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The Dallas-Fort Worth area has one of the largest immigrant populations of anywhere in the country. As recently as 2019, according to U.S. Census Bureau data, 48,000 immigrants moved to North Texas.
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