Immigrants today assimilating faster than those of yesteryear

Our diversity is a strength, and is what makes America unique among nations today.

It's also our weakness.

Before The Hart-Celler Act of 1965 (Thank you Senator Kennedy) and the 1986 Amnesty Act ( Thank you Senator Kennedy) most Americans wanted population control in the US.Now we allow in around 2,000,000 legal immigrants a year plus their extended families,(Mother,Father,Sister ,Brother and their children.)That adds millions more.Then you have the 12-20 million illegal immigrants that Congress wants to give Amnesty to.If that's granted,then you have their extended families,which will add millions more.Then you have the 500,000 that still cross our southern border illegally each year.The US current population is 301,000,000,not to long ago we exported our surplus food,now we import half,In the near future 36 states will have a water shortage,Some studies show the US population at 450,000,000 by the year 2050.Has anyone ask their Congressman and Senators what quality of life our Children and Grand Children will have? Social Security,in 1996 the Social Security Administration signed an agreement with Mexico that will give Social Security payments to some of the 12-20 million illegal aliens once they are granted amnesty, total cost over 50 billion dollars a year.Add the 45 billion dollars each year that the American tax payer donates for illegal immigrants free basic medical care(Federal law),food stamps,WIC,rent assistance,free education to K-12 for their children plus school lunches,and translators (Federal law) and we have a ticking time bomb.Amnesty for 12-20 million illegal aliens and endless immigration is not the answer.I encourage everyone to write their Congressman and Senators and ask them what the total cost to the American tax payer will be if they grant amnesty to those 12-20 million illegal immigrants,after all you and I and our children will foot the bill for their decision

This is a quote from Amy Chua, writer for the Washington Post Dec. 16th 2007: "The greatest empire in history, ancient Rome, collapsed when its cultural and political glue dissolved, and peoples who had long thought of themselves as Romans turned against the empire. In part, this fragmentation occurred because of a massive influx of immigrants from a very different culture. The "barbarians" who sacked Rome were Germanic immigrants who never fully assimilated."

Is that you seem to have a beef, not with illegals, per se, but with folks who speak Spanish. I suspect that if we were having a similar inrush of cheap labor from Canada, you wouldn't be affronted by the majority of them, but you'd be posting alarmist posts about the number of French-speaking radio stations that the Quebecois would be listening to.

Look, if you want to be taken seriously, argue about the very real problems stemming from the influx of undocumented illegals -- unsafe work practices, tax evasion by employers of illegals, the downward impact on the job market and wages that a supply of cheap illegal labor has on the rest of us. Don't post inflammatory drivel about "oh my god, there's Spanish radio stations," because (1) why should we give a crap what language Americans listen to on the radio, and (2) what does language have to do with the basic values of being a freedom-loving American? I have relatives from southeast Asia who are Americans and have been for two-three decades who nonetheless watch tv from their native land and read in their mother tongue, even as they work their butts off at Wal-Mart and drink Budweiser just like the rest of us.

Our diversity is a strength, and is what makes America unique among nations today.

Mexican Immigrants Do Not Assimilate Quickly in US, Study Finds

By Pete Winn, CNSNews.com, 5/15/08 (CNSNews.com) - Immigrants to the United States are doing a good job of assimilating, with immigrants from Cuba, Vietnam, and the Philippines leading the way in adapting to an American way of life, according to a new study. But the one group not assimilating well is Mexicans, apparently because so many of them are in the country illegally.

Excluding Mexican immigrants, the assimilation picture of the 21st century looks better than some might think, as the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a conservative think tank in New York City, documented in its report, Measuring Immigrant Assimilation in the United States, released Tuesday.

Study author Jacob Vigdor of Duke University points out that there is no question that today’s immigrants are dissimilar from the native-born population when they first arrive.

"If you look at assimilation as a snapshot, and take the immigrant population in its totality, it is less similar to the native-born population than at basically any point in the 20th century," Vigdor told Cybercast News Service .

But the reality is, immigrants in the 21st century are doing a better job of assimilating into American society than did the generation of immigrants that arrived at Ellis Island a century ago, he said.

"If you look at assimilation as a kind of moving picture - as a process that takes time as immigrants get used to living here and climb the economic ladder and so forth — there is actually some encouraging news," said Vigdor.

The study used census data from 1890 to 2006 to look at how close foreign-born immigrants look to the native-born population.

Immigrants from Cuba, Vietnam, and the Philippines rank near the top, alongside immigrants from Europe, Australia and New Zealand, as the quickest to acquire English, become naturalized, climb the economic ladder, intermarry with native-born Americans and become involved in American civic culture.

In fact, they are making faster progress in the melting pot than other immigrants — or immigrants from any other periods of history.

"Today’s immigrants are making more progress in assimilation because they are assimilating more rapidly," Vigdor said. "They are starting out with a disadvantage, but they are making up for that disadvantage at a rapid pace for the most part."

But Mexican immigrants, he said, are the exception.

"Immigrants from Mexico are not exhibiting the same patterns as immigrants of other nationalities," Vigdor said. "They are assimilating more slowly over time. We see this particularly in terms of their economic and their civic assimilation."

Mexicans — by far the most numerous nationality of immigrants — lag significantly behind other groups, Vigdor said, largely because a lack of legal status keeps many Mexican immigrants from advancing economically.

In fact, Mexican immigrants are assimilating more slowly than Italian immigrants did at the turn of the last century, Vigdor said.

Laureen Laglagaron, a policy analyst for the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., said the new study seems to correlate well with her own findings, with one difference: Her research finds that the children of Mexican immigrants seem to blend better with the native-born U.S. population than their parents.

"They have better advancement in terms of acquisition of college education and entry into the workforce," Laglagaron told Cybercast News Service . "The second generation, historically, has done a really good job of adopting to their new homeland. And also it’s a function of country of origin - so if you are coming with English-language skills already, you’ll have better time assimilating."

She also pointed to the fact that both Cuba and the Philippines were former U.S. territories and, along with Vietnam, had large U.S. military bases.

Vigdor, meanwhile, said language skills, though important for assimilation, do not determine whether immigrants will eventually become U.S. citizens. He pointed to Canada, whose immigrants score very high on most assimilation factors.

"Culturally, Canadians are indistinguishable from native-born Americans," Vigdor said. "The thing that really sets them apart is that they don’t become naturalized citizens at a very high rate."

The study noted that the immigrant population of the United States has nearly quadrupled since 1970, and doubled since 1990, driven in large part by immigration from Latin America and Asia.

Has anyone else notice that when the Liberals can't come up with anything constructive to say they throw out comments like (grammatical error) or (Xenophobia)? The bottom line is most Americans are tired of immigrants that entering our country illegally.Amnesty was tried in 1986 and it didn't work,22 years later look at the results,we have 12-20 million illegal immigrants in our country wanting amnesty.I don't know about you,but I place more value on our American citizenship than to give it to people that slip across our borders in the middle of the night.If that makes me xenophobia,then so be it.

Y'all spot the grammatical error in averyds's subject line? :-D How's that for a command of English?

Going to averyds's presumed point -- he/she fails to counter the article's conclusions, as linguistic assimilation was only one factor in the study cited.

As I pointed out in my post from mid-May below, the article concludes that "the speed with which new arrivals take on native-born traits has increased since the 1990s." The factors used included "civic factors, such as rates of U.S. citizenship and service in the military; economic factors, such as earnings and rates of homeownership; and cultural factors, such as English ability and degree of intermarriage with U.S. citizens."

The post by averyds fails to counter the article's conclusions.

Xenophobia is an ugly trait -- and unfortunately has been all-too-common in our history, whether it be leveled against the Irish, Germans, Chinese, Japanese, you name it.

Quote:

"In many areas of Miami, Spanish has become the predominant language, replacing English in everyday life. Anyone from Latin America could feel at home on the streets, without having to pronounce a single word in English.

In stores, shopkeepers wait on their clients in Spanish. Universities offer programs for Spanish speakers. And in supermarkets, banks, restaurants -- even at the post office and government offices -- information is given and assistance is offered in Spanish. In Miami, doctors and nurses speak Spanish with their patients and a large portion of advertising is in Spanish. Daily newspapers and radio and television stations cater to the Hispanic public.

But this situation, so pleasing to Latin American immigrants, makes some English speakers feel marginalized. In the 1950s, it's estimated that more than 80 percent of Miami-Dade County residents were non-Hispanic whites. But in 2006, the Census Bureau estimates that number was only 18.5 percent, and in 2015 it is forecast to be 14 percent. Hispanics now make up about 60 percent.

``The Anglo population is leaving,'' said Juan Clark, a sociology professor at Miami Dade College. ``One of the reactions is to emigrate toward the north. They resent the fact that (an American) has to learn Spanish in order to have advantages to work. If one doesn't speak Spanish, it's a disadvantage.''

According to the Census, 58.5 percent of the county's 2.4 million residents speak Spanish _ and half of those say they don't speak English well. English-only speakers make up 27.2 percent of the county's residents.

In the mainly Cuban city of Hialeah and in the Miami neighborhood of Little Havana, 94 percent of residents identified themselves as Hispanic.

Andrew Lynch, an expert on linguistics and bilingualism at the University of Miami, said that the presence of Spanish-speakers first became an issue in Miami-Dade County in the 1960s and '70s with the arrival of Cuban immigrants and intensified in the '80s with immigrants from not just Cuba, but Argentina, Venezuela and elsewhere in Latin America. The exodus of English speakers soon followed.

predominant language, replacing English in everyday life. Anyone from Latin America could feel at home on the streets, without having to pronounce a single word in English.

In stores, shopkeepers wait on their clients in Spanish. Universities offer programs for Spanish speakers. And in supermarkets, banks, restaurants -- even at the post office and government offices -- information is given and assistance is offered in Spanish. In Miami, doctors and nurses speak Spanish with their patients and a large portion of advertising is in Spanish. Daily newspapers and radio and television stations cater to the Hispanic public.

But this situation, so pleasing to Latin American immigrants, makes some English speakers feel marginalized. In the 1950s, it's estimated that more than 80 percent of Miami-Dade County residents were non-Hispanic whites. But in 2006, the Census Bureau estimates that number was only 18.5 percent, and in 2015 it is forecast to be 14 percent. Hispanics now make up about 60 percent.

``The Anglo population is leaving,'' said Juan Clark, a sociology professor at Miami Dade College. ``One of the reactions is to emigrate toward the north. They resent the fact that (an American) has to learn Spanish in order to have advantages to work. If one doesn't speak Spanish, it's a disadvantage.''

According to the Census, 58.5 percent of the county's 2.4 million residents speak Spanish _ and half of those say they don't speak English well. English-only speakers make up 27.2 percent of the county's residents.

In the mainly Cuban city of Hialeah and in the Miami neighborhood of Little Havana, 94 percent of residents identified themselves as Hispanic.

Andrew Lynch, an expert on linguistics and bilingualism at the University of Miami, said that the presence of Spanish-speakers first became an issue in Miami-Dade County in the 1960s and '70s with the arrival of Cuban immigrants and intensified in the '80s with immigrants from not just Cuba, but Argentina, Venezuela and elsewhere in Latin America. The exodus of English speakers soon followed."

Quote:

"Almost anywhere you live in the United States, there's at least one radio station broadcasting in Spanish. According to a recent study released by Arbitron, a company that tracks radio trends, the number of radio stations featuring a Spanish-language format has reached 678, an all-time high.

And those stations aren't found just along the Mexican border and major metropolitan areas either. The study, Hispanic Radio Today 2005 Edition, lists Spanish radio markets from places such as Kansas City (86,400 potential Spanish-speaking listeners), Portland, Ore. (187,500), Colorado Springs (50,700) and Cheyenne, Wyo. (the smallest market on the list, with 7,800). It comes as no surprise that the Los Angeles market is the largest with 4.4 million listeners, but Chicago also ranks high at No. 4 with 1.3 million listeners, coming behind New York and Miami."

Quote:

"Closely tied to illegal immigration is the steep decline of English being
spoken immigrants. How many times have you called a service provider and was
either greeted with a message in Spanish or had to "push 1 for English"?
Heck, I even had one service provided in Indiana ask me to "press 2 for
English"-it wasn't even a first choice! How often have you've got the store
(like Wal-Mart) at night and except for the cashier, not heard a word of
English?

The failure of a nation to adopt a common language will lead to the failure
of the nation. As I've often said, language is the thread that binds the
fabric of a nation together. It allows us to develop common values and
integrate our cultures into this grand melting pot that we call home. It
creates strength out of diversity. However, in the name of politically
correct "multiculturalism" immigrants are encouraged to "preserve" their
heritage by opting out of society. The children of immigrants in many school
systems across the nation aren't even require to take their taxpayer based
classes in English. Instead, taxpayers have to pay for them to have in class
translators. Driver's license tests and other public services and documents
are now provided in languages other than English. How do we survive as a
county and not run the risk of devolving into a balkanized nation if
everyone is allowed to opt out of this most basic of requirements? The short
and direct answer is we don't."

"The fact that you don’t even have enough respect to capitalize the G in God tells me all I need to know."

So Ross can only agree with someone if they beleive in his "god." Why should you or your "god" care what I think?

god must be dead if you are alive.

A minimal effort using google revealed that Ellis Island employed hundreds of interpreters fluent in a wide variety of languages to assist immigrants new to the country. A visit to countless "ethnic" neighborhoods in this and other cities will reveal that businesses have always sought to do business in any language that will allow them to make money, english or otherwise. This is nothing new.

Recently, technology has given us automated phone systems that make it incredibly cheap to offer assistance over the phone in multiple languages. With Spanish being the second most common language in our country, large businesses have naturally started with that language in attempting to reach a broader customer base. Government has given the Spanish language the second-most amount of attention as a language. But again, all of this is nothing new. Government and business have always operated in multiple languages. It's just more prevalent now because it's cheaper to do thanks to technology.

Perhaps it would be better to turn our back on over 2 centuries of American history of welcoming the world into our great melting pot. I recently learned that many of my ancestors arrived pre-Revolution, so I guess I could argue for everybody whose family arrived after the Revolution to be kicked out. But I think immigration, despite its challenges, has made our country better. We need to continue to encourage immigration and improve the system to allow more people in legally. With more legal options for entry, fewer people will choose to come illegally and it will be that much easier to fight illegal immigration.

Folks are laughing at you.

are laughing at you, Ross. :-)

The fact that you don’t even have enough respect to capitalize the G in God tells me all I need to know.

By the way; I don’t need to insult your intelligence. You do it for me every time you post. I quoted the very same piece Mary used. Let me show it to you again.

• "Mexican immigrants experience very low rates of economic and civic assimilation. Immigrants born in Mexico, particularly those living and working in the United States illegally, lie at the heart of many current debates over immigration policy. The assimilation index shows that immigrants from Mexico are very distinct from the native-born upon arrival and assimilate slowly over time. The slow rates of economic and civic assimilation set Mexicans apart from other immigrants, and may reflect the fact that the large numbers of Mexican immigrants residing in the United States illegally have few opportunities to advance themselves along these dimensions."

Since far and away more immigrants come from Mexico than any place else it would seem that the report contradicts itself wouldn’t it?

Stop drinking the Kool-Aid; you’ll be up all night.

Ross Balano Midwest Voices 2008

Your right-wing biases are in full force today, aren't they?!

But political biases are no excuse for intellectual laziness, and you still make absolutely no inroads at countering the study's conclusion that recent arrivals are integrating into our society at a faster pace than a decade ago. Instead you opt to go off on a tangential screed against illegal immigration.

Insult our intelligence, and you're likely to garner some insults in return.

"I could care less what the very liberal Washington Post has to say."

That's quite obvious. However, at least my digs at you finally got you to actually read the article Ms. Sanchez references, which you clearly hadn't done when you first responded.

That’s typical! When you are wrong you start to hurl insults. That just gets boring. Did YOU use that tactic in high school debate? You must have been a master in that class right?

You still haven’t disproven my point in spite of the fact that you keep claiming you have.

I could care less what the very liberal Washington Post has to say. Webster defines assimilation as, “to absorb into the culture or mores of a population or group.” A major part of assimilation would be learning the language. In this country that would be English.

Any idiot who regularly dials a telephone, watches television (did you see the storm warnings last week also printed on the screen in Spanish?) or drives down Independence Blvd and reads the signs can tell that learning English is not a priority among many of today’s immigrants. All you need to do is open your eyes and ears. I really don’t blame the immigrants. With so much available to them in Spanish why should they go to the trouble of learning English. But that is NOT assimilation.

Suggest that English be the official language of the US and you’ll be accused of being racist. In this country if you call the federal government you shouldn’t have to be asked if you want to be spoken to in English. That should be assumed.

We estimate that there are 12 million people here ILLEGALLY. Do you mean to tell me that THEY are assimilating? They are not even supposed to be here for heaven’s sake. It would be real hard to assimilate while hiding from ICE.

Here is a quote from that same study that Mary neglects to site: "Mexican immigrants experience very low rates of economic and civic assimilation. Immigrants born in Mexico, particularly those living and working in the United States illegally, lie at the heart of many current debates over immigration policy. The assimilation index shows that immigrants from Mexico are very distinct from the native-born upon arrival and assimilate slowly over time. The slow rates of economic and civic assimilation set Mexicans apart from other immigrants, and may reflect the fact that the large numbers of Mexican immigrants residing in the United States illegally have few opportunities to advance themselves along these dimensions."

Maybe another shot of grain alcohol in that Kool-Aid you drink might help.

Ross Balano Midwest Voices 2008

The article reports on a study based on actual data, concluding that "the speed with which new arrivals take on native-born traits has increased since the 1990s." The factors used included "civic factors, such as rates of U.S. citizenship and service in the military; economic factors, such as earnings and rates of homeownership; and cultural factors, such as English ability and degree of intermarriage with U.S. citizens."

Rather than take issue with the methodology or the data used in the study, you simply make a vacuous assertion that the study's conclusion "doesn’t seem to hold water."

Then when I point out the vacuity of your assertion, you splutter "but, but, there's a phone number with bilingual choices."

I, and the rest of us, are left cocking an eyebrow and shaking our heads at how poorly you must have performed in high school debate class.

It looks to me like you didn't even bother to read the article referenced by Sanchez before jumping at the opportunity to trumpet your political bias, or you would have known that the study's authors utilized new arrivals' English ability as one of the factors considered.

What exactly did you debunk? You didn't disprove anything that I wrote.

Did you call the 800 number? What you will hear if you do is a FACT.

If I was embarrassed I would probably use some made up name so nobody would know who I was.

What do you guys put in that Kool-Aid anyway?

Ross Balano Midwest Voices 2008

a monopoly on the kool-aid, man. :-)

But seriously, man, have some self respect and either don't post at all or make an effort to back up your claims with some actual facts. It's embarrassing, though I suspect I'm not the only one entertained at how easy it is to debunk your posts.

Interfarce, every time you disagree with me it makes me just that much more certain that my opinion is correct. Please don’t ever agree with me lest I start to doubt myself.

You say, “unsubstantiated assertion.” If you believe that then I suggest you call the federal government at 1-800-333-4636. Guess what; it will ask you if you want English or Spanish.

Maybe you should lay off the Kool-Aid a little bit, huh?

Ross Balano Midwest Voices 2008

Just go away....

Yet another unsubstantiated assertion by Balano.

The article reports on a study based on actual data, but hey, Balano isn't concerned with data and facts when they're contrary to his political biases.

I must respectfully disagree with both you and the Washington Post.

If what you say is true, why then must so many services by government at all levels be offered in Spanish? Why ballots in Spanish? Why do we have to hear, “press one for English” when we dial so many telephone numbers. Why is there such a battle whenever there is a call to make English the official language of the US? Why is it called racist if we expect immigrants to speak English?

We can debate the immigration issue all you want but the assertion that today’s immigrants are assimilating faster just doesn’t seem to hold water.

Ross Balano Midwest Voices 2008