Rightwords... Prudent Conservatism

What is Wrong with Assimilation?


The idea of multiculturalism in the US has been bubbling to the surface for years, to the point where the real meaning of such an anti-American stance has become much clearer. We are being told to believe that all cultures are equal, and that none should have preference over another. I would ask these dictators of our society in what way is the culture of a far off land that is still primitive anywhere near the equal to American culture? The sorry fact is that such cultures are not equal by any rational measure. So you say, well that is not what was meant exactly. So you meant that there were some cultures that are equal and others that are not?

In America, we have had for centuries whole sections of cities that were taken over by immigrants. These foreign communities served as a home for those who didn't speak acceptable English, and a haven where they could speak their native tongue and be understood for all of the necessities and social contacts of their lives. Gradually, however, successive generations of their families broke out from the communities and began to be assimilated into the common way of life in America. The older members who became rooted in the community, and perhaps never were able to learn English acceptably, stayed behind within their comfort zone. The time came when more of their people lived outside of the community than inside. They were ever more assimilated culturally into the mainstream. This is a typical American story.

But now we face a strong push to forego assimilation in favor of promoting the culture of the immigrants as not only equal, but deserving of local, state, and national government support.
This support comes in many guises: Affording multiple language tracks in schools; printing all government documents in multiple languages; allowing street signs to be given in several languages; and even reworking road signs for the foreign-born to understand ( this fact is useful, of course, to support tourism). Courts have been forced to employ translators to ensure that foreigners (even those who have been resident in the US for 20 years!) have access to the proceedings in their own language. Soon we might have Bastille Day, Cinco de Mayo, and something from many other lands to celebrate their unique cultural contributions to the world, but here in the US because of the concentration of their ex-homelanders in America.

Then will come the renaming pushes within their areas of concentration, and the erasure of the former US territory signs and symbols. Mexicalifornia comes to mind, remembering the book by Victor Davis Hanson. Our uniquely American identity will be scrambled together with asian, latino, and muslim identities in a most displeasing manner, first, because their cultures are simply not American, their attitudes have not been assimilated, and their value systems have not been modified to fit into American values.

Their moral compasses are not pointing to our North. So they act as they would if in their own land, or as they would if in a foreign land they do not respect enough to learn how to assimilate. Finally, their respect for the law in America may well be lacking to say the least. This is the road to disaster. One can see this clearly from the fact that 40% of the prison inmates in California are illegal immigrants. I do not believe in Open Borders.

Assimilation is coupled with the illegal immigration problem very strongly, where we have now some 11 million Mexicans roaming the country without the legal right to be here, and with no intent to conform to our way of life any more than necessary. The solutions being proposed for this part of the problem must include damming up the borders, severely punishing the businessmen who hire illegals, empowering local and state police to deal with illegals, and deporting wholesale all of the illegals we can find.

Amnesty is not a solution. Perhaps an effective sponsorship program can be worked out where businesses put up large bonds on each foreign worker hired to ensure return to the worker's own country when the work is finished. The size of the bond should be 20 times the actual wage paid or higher, thus potentially bankrupting the business if too many foreign employees skip out and disappear into the underground.

The official language for the US should be English, full stop. For legal immigrants, they should learn English within one to two years, and learn the basics of American history and culture, or be inelligible for citizenship. It should be the law that foreigners immigrate legally, and make every effort to assimilate, or be denied US citizenship. In some cases, they should be deported as well, especially those who break our laws.

# posted by Mannning @ 10:12 PM