10 Myths About Immigration

Yeah.

My mom and sister got off the boar in 1945. My mom had married my dad, a US soldier, in England and my sister was born there. By dint of being British, my mom spoke perfect English, but found that her new relatives in Pennsylvania had only the barest grasp on the language, even though the family had been here for over 200 years. Had my mom not married by dad she would not have met today's criteria for entry and I'd be a Brit (at least I'd have a decent nation health care program.) Perhaps you might consider getting some tutoring to help you raise your writing level above the third grade level. You might even find an Indian or Jamaican immigrant that can help you.

Tyler - I am an immigrant and was fortunate enough to come to this country at the age of 18 using the "legal" route. I became a naturalized citizen about eight years ago and am now about to finish my Ph.D. in Education.

I read your post that reveals your thoughts and feelings about immigrants. I think it's ironic that you advocate for immigrants to have to learn English, while your English writing is incredibly atrocious. I completed my K-12 education in my home country and can demonstrate perfect English grammar and spelling. I hope you see the hypocrisy of your statements before you demand that immigrants learn English. It's called learning the language yourself first.

Well how else will they figure out if somebody is illegal? If they have an accent, or if they say a single word in spanish? I seriously doubt that.

#10 actually needs clarification, I think. Is is true that there is no actual law in the criminal record with regard to being in the country illegally. As a result, it being a civil infraction means that the remedies on the books that are available are limited (usually to only deportation) if the "crime", for lack of a better word, is simply based upon being here in an unauthorized manner (this would exclude obvious other violations that accompany it, such as identity theft, etc.). That being said, if a person comes here legally (say, on a tourist visa, F-1, H-1, J-1, etc) and overstays, it is not viewed criminally by the justice system. There is, however, a violation of the penal code when a person enters the country illegally, such as sneaking across the border. In effect, there are two different standards or systems which I think deserve attention.

I must refute some of your points:

Re #7: Of course you will see a higher percentage of people here illegally in the federal prison and detention system. Immigration laws are federal laws, so people who break those laws or are awaiting deportation will wind up there. Most criminal laws -- i.e., those involving crimes against persons or property -- are state laws. Yet the proportion of immigrants in state and local prisons is far smaller than their proportion in the population. Of course some immigrants commit crimes; but the vast majority are unusually law-abiding. We have relied on evidence gained from reputable organizations. I will just note that CIS, whom you reference, purports to be non-partisan yet has never published anything that shows immigration in a good light. If you want support only for anti-immigrant arguments, it's a great source.
#8: Yes, that underground economy exists, and we are not defending it. It's part of the reason we desperately need to fix our broken system.
#10: Law 101: Some laws are criminal, some are civil. Most of the federal laws involving immigration are civil laws. There are very few other instances in which we label violators of civil law as criminals. It's not about whether the law is important, it's a matter of being accurate about the nature of the offense.

I teach English as a Second Language to adult immigrants in Canada, and I can assure you that MANY immigrants come here without being able to speak English or French. Government programs provide them with free classes to help them prepare for life in Canada.

Your own comment contradicts itself by saying, on the one hand, that all first world countries have a national language, while on the other you note that in Canada both English and French are official. Indeed they are both equal status national languages in that country. Several European countries give official national status to more than one language: notably Ireland, Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Cyprus, Kosovo, Luxembourg, and Malta. Iceland has no official language. I checked 25 European countries and all of them have either no official language, more than one official language or an official national language with a number of officially recognized minority or regional languages. Here's a wikipedia article listing nearly all the countries of the world as having more than one language with official status. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_multilingual_countries_and_regions#Europe Wikopedia sometimes gets it wrong, so you can double check with the CIA World Factbook, or just look up any country on which you have doubts. You could also check the Council of Europe's "Charter for Regional or Minority Languages"

The U.S. has always given official status to multiple languages. The Articles of Confederation were printed in both English and German. Native American languages have official status. The California Constitution was originally published in both English and Spanish. French has legal status in Louisiana and Spanish in New Mexico. English is co-official with other languages in Puerto Rico (Spanish), Hawaii (Hawaian), American Somoa (Somoan) and Guam (Chammoro)and the Northern Mariana Islands(Chammoro and Carolinian). See Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_United_States

Actually Spanish speaking immigrants have been nearly as quick as previous immigrants to learn English. The vast majority of the first generations and nearly all of the second generations have mastered English. Spanish language parents are nearly universal in insisting that their children learn English, both have more opportunities here, and as a sort of loyalty to the US.

Canada has two national languages--English and French. Somehow, that hasn't stopped the Quebecois separatists from wanting to leave the country. How would establishing English as our national language fix any problems? People wouldn't come to the USA if they wanted to make it "Mexico #2"--they come to the USA because it's the USA! And I'm sorry to say that you are misinformed about the "requirement" to speak English to stay in this country in the past. My Polish great-grandparents went to their grave speaking only a few necessary words of English. My mother remembers hardly being able to communicate (verbally, anyway) with her own grandparents, because she, like the vast majority of third-generation Americans, spoke almost none of her ancestors' language. History repeats itself...the xenophobic ignorance you are perpetrating here is virtually identical to that aimed at Irish, German, and Italian immigrants at the turn of the twentieth century.

Grand blanket statements are never true. Some may be here for welfare. Many are not.

As an ESL teacher, I saw many students who worked 12 hours, came to my 3 hour English class, slept a few hours and then went back to work. They never once complained that they were working in a factory for practically nothing. They were so proud when they were able to become citizens.

As for the Laotian and Hmong Refugees, the vast majority settled in my home town. They worked FOR the United States Military during Vietnam, that is why they were let in, unfortunately very slowly. Their children worked the hardest in school of anyone. To the point that it became a common saying "Yeah, he aced the test, but you know, he's Hmong. What else would you expect?" Their children became doctors, lawyers, and worked hard at their family farms while going to school. While they brought a few cultural problems for the most part, they are amazingly motivated and become fluent as quickly as one can expect, especially since their language is about as different from English as one can be.

English is an exceptionally hard language to learn. It takes five years minimum to become fluent in a language. I can see how easy it would be to rely on media in your own language if you had the chance. Some, especially older learners may take over 10 years of hard work to become fluent, if then.

Do I think we should defend out borders? YES. If for no other reason than to keep terrorists, drug cartels, and criminals out. It's gangs, drug lords and the like who are dangerous. It's some of these very people that the average Spanish speaking immigrant is trying to get away from themselves.

Did you actually read the myths before you posted this? Illegal immigrants don't qualify for welfare or food stamps, and they might or might not get health care and housing--many of them pay their way or don't even receive health care because they're afraid of being reported to INS. Many pay for YOUR social security--they can never receive it. Just like your grandparents, today's immigrants come here to be free and responsible for their own futures; the difference is that the US has slammed the door in their faces.

Ivan, the fact that sweatshops are filled with people that don't speak English does not mean those people are not here legally (reference your earlier mention of church-sponsored immigrants). The fact that those people do not know English may make them more vulnerable to exploitation by sweatshops, but if current trends toward the separation of the 1% from the 99% continue (as manifested in union-busting, resistance to increased minimum wage, etc.), more and more English-speaking natives of this country will have to face working in 'sweat shops' in order to make a living. Your implication that those immigrant-refugees of the Vietnam War were a 'load on the welfare system' contradicts the evidence I saw firsthand. I worked farm labor for a short time (a short time because it was damn hard, dirty work with abysmally low pay on a per hour basis, since it is paid on a piece work basis -- and only the very fast and adept can approach minimum wage with their efforts). Those Vietnamese immigrants would cram a car full, drive themselves to the field and bust ass all day. The same has been the story of other immigrant groups in previous decades and centuries, as the article reveals. And if Spanish becomes the prevalent language of our country, so be it. Learn Spanish. It's not like English was the first language spoken on this continent, nor was it ever the only language spoken here.

This fear of becoming bi-lingual, of having another language spoken in the USA is of a person whom although he claims he is educated (as per his own information: PhD) belongs to a prior generation, probably in his late seventies now who doesn't understand globalization and still lives with the idea of "America for the Americans". From the business point of view; what is wrong with speaking English and Spanish? Hispanic market has a size of more than 300 millions of people, that means selling goods and services to a market that size representing hundreds of trillions of Dollars a year! We need to speak other languages(Spanish) to do business with them; we need to develop these new skills to compete with other countries to control this market. We have the advantage over China that we have here in the US more immigrants from Hispanic countries that can enrich our education with their language and prepare us better to grow our economy.

WHAT IS WRONG ON SPEAKING MORE THAN ONE LANGUAGE AND BEING ABLE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT OTHER CULTURES? Isn’t this what we call better education? We are not talking here about not teaching English in our school or not speaking English in our business and daily life. I totally disagree with those cases of bringing people in mass to take advantage of our system, but we need to get rid of the stereotypic mentality and work toward our new future, understanding the challenges we have ahead with our new reality, to be able to take advantage of it.
I am a first generation of a dominican family who came to this country looking for a better education for my children and a better life for myself, I hope you notice my effort in writing in English, at 54 I am still learning as many of my friends and family members are, but don't doubt it; we are a reality in the USA, we are here to stay!

"Spanish is becoming the second working language of many cities and English is the second language. This is an inevitable fact due to the geographical location of the USA" ...This is also Due to the fact that up till about 160 years ago, most of the southwestern US was Mexico.

That's just silly.

We will almost certainly become a bilingual country, but what's the matter with that? Kids who attend school in the US may hold on to their heritage languages, but they will learn English, and their children will be fluent in English, because English is the language we use in our schools.

In Europe, many people speak two, three, or four languages because avoiding those who don't speak one's own language is next to impossible. Countries may have designated official languages, but citizens grow up understanding the importance of being able to communicate with everyone. I took a college class with a Swiss girl whose home language was German; she spoke French in school and then learned English as her "second" language. Finally, she studied Spanish so she could study abroad in Peru. She would have thought that this whole argument is laughable.

Americans' fear of somehow "losing" English is just plain ridiculous. English will never be obliterated in this country or elsewhere--it's simply too powerful; it's the international language of business and of higher education. Yes, you may be able to work as a janitor or in a grocery store without speaking any or much English, but if you want a *career,* you must learn English. Therefore, people will always learn English.