Addressing the Immigration Status, Culture, and Language Connections in Planning

Tuesday, October 2, 1:45 PM - 2:45 PM

The panel will examine:

1. the changing composition of the potential LEP population;
2. the immigration status and culture based needs for assistance than often complicate the language assistance needs of the LEP population; and
3. how state courts can begin to anticipate these needs in their planning efforts. 

Panel members will illustrate how understanding the magnitude, sources, and complexity of the language-assistance needs in state courts across the nation requires more and more knowledge about not only the particular languages of your LEP population but also the immigration status and cultural composition of your court’s LEP population.  They will show how the dramatic, largely immigration-fueled, growth in the size, and, perhaps even more importantly, the diversity and dispersion of the LEP population across the nation now means that courts everywhere are confronted by more challenging communications, and greater numbers of court participants lacking capacity to navigate not only particular court processes but also the culture of the courts generally.   Finally, the panel will identify techniques, tools, and resources for addressing the immigration status/culture/language nexus in your LEP assistance planning.

PRESENTERS:

Moderator: Ms. Marla S. Moore, Director of the Georgia Administrative Office of the Courts

• Mr. John A. Martin, Director of Immigration Initiative for the Center for Public Policy Studies

RESOURCES:

LEP Data Brief: Limited English Proficient Individuals in the United States: Number, Share, Growth, and Linguistic Diversity, prepared by the Migration Policy Institute (December 2011)

Number of LEP Person Speaking a Particular Non-English Language by US County, prepared by the Migration Policy Institute