Multilingualism at Home and Abroad

From the NY Times

When reading today's New York Times, I came across an article on Latvian voters rejecting a proposal to add Russian as a second official language. This reminded me of the issue of language in the U.S., which has been centered mainly around Spanish speakers. In Latvia, more than a quarter of people speak Russian as their first language. According to U.S. census data, about 35 million, or 12%, of the U.S. population speaks Spanish at home. The percentage of Spanish speakers in the U.S. is less than half of the percentage of Russian speakers in Latvia, and Spanish has become a huge force in the United States politically, economically and socially - especially in the realm of education - I can only imagine the importance of Russian in Latvia.

The article framed the issue as being on one side a push for recognition and rights for Russian speakers in Latvia, and on the other a question of national identity. The Latvian president commended those who voted against the referendum for not "yielding before provocations and attempts to foment hatred." The emotional charge of his statement shows the importance of the official language to many in Latvia, and another Latvian framed the issue as one of "the nation's identity" and not one of rights for minority groups. In a country where they actually have an official language, unlike in the U.S., the debate around national identity seems to have a little more strength than in the United States. But it seems to me like when 25% of the country speaks a language other than the official one, perhaps the national identity needs re-framing. In the United States, the whole national identity argument has never held much weight for me, when the country's history is made up of immigrants who often did not speak English.  What do you think? Do people in countries with some sort of history of an official language have more justification for the "national identity" argument than do those in countries like the United States?