An article in the Telegraph, UK, covers what it calls a "growing backlash" in Germany against the popular trend of appropriating English words into German discourse, or what is called "Denglisch." An increasingly globalized world, the spread of English-based technology, and a high rate of immigration into the country (there are some 10 million foreigners in Germany presently) have all contributed to a situation that is alarming to some Germans: sixty out of every hundred new word used in Germany are now English words, up from 1980, when only one word in 100 was in English.
Walter Kraemer, a member of the Verein Deutsche Sprache e.V. (the German Language Association, similar to the French Académie française) is arguing that this is detrimental for German science and industry. The Telegraph quotes him as saying:
''There is no way around English...It's the international language. But before you communicate, you have to be innovative, imaginative, creative, and you can't do that properly in a language that's not your own. People think better in their own language. German science is suffering because of this.''
This outcry comes on the heels of a recent addition to the German Constitution (the Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland), the culmination of sustained efforts by German conservatives, which incorporated the following text to Article 22: "The language of the Federal Republic of Germany is German." This addition has been criticized as being aimed against the growing Turkish, Arab and African immigrant communities.
Language has also been a central issue in immigration discussions in the US. I won't go in to it here, but my one comment is that English has done just fine here "despite" the waves of immigration from non-English speaking worlds. To get a really cool perspective on this, check out the video below which maps out immigration to the US from 1820 to 2007:
Immigration to the US, 1820-2007 v2 from Ian Stevenson on Vimeo.
PS. Check out my related post, Dying Languages.
Update: As RandomGuyFromGermany points out, the addition to the constitution hasn't been accepted yet; it has just been voted on by the conservative party.