Читать книгу The Mysteries of Bilingualism. Unresolved Issues онлайн

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There are many other countries that do not have questions on languages in their censuses, and even less on bilingualism. Thus, Christopher (2011) states that in the Commonwealth, only 37 of the 71 census authorities included language questions in recent censuses, leaving many without such questions.

Other national censuses do have language questions but for very specific reasons which do not really have to do with bilingualism. The examples we will mention here are those of England and the United States. In England, before 2011, no question about language had been asked in its censuses, unlike in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland where one question had been asked. The Office of National Statistics finally decided to ask two questions in 2011 for a number of reasons, according to Sebba (2017). Among these we find: enabling the government bodies to meet their duties under legislation governing race relations and disability discrimination; allowing local and central government to allocate resources for teaching English as a second language, and for translation services within public services; and supporting regional or minority languages like Cornish and British Sign Language.