Migration Policy Institute Podcasts

More than 25 million U.S. residents have limited proficiency in English, and as the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated, all levels of government have an important need to deliver services, outreach, and critical health and safety information to individuals and communities who communicate in languages other than English. Providing access to public services and information for individuals who have limited proficiency in English has been a civil rights requirement for federally funded state and local programs for decades. Ensuring these entities meet their language access obligations has become a more pressing concern in recent years due to the size, growth, and dispersal of the country’s immigrant and Limited English Proficient (LEP) populations. Because federal funding reaches so deeply into state and local systems and so widely across the country, language access requirements affect virtually all sectors of government and cover many programs delivered by state and local governments, companies, and community organ