Immigrants Must Learn English and Become Americans
This country doesn't need millions of visitors living and
working here. We need millions of Americans living and working
here. And what we really need is for the immigrants who are here
to become Americans. The most important thing they have to do to
become American, is learn the language that most of the
residents speak.
These people will never learn the laws or the rights they are
entitled to, will never get good jobs, will never become
successful, will never become Americans if they don't speak
English. And they will certainly never learn much about this
country they moved to or feel any loyalty to it. In their minds,
they will always be guests or visitors, always planning, however
unrealistically, that they will go "home" sometime.
When Spanish speaking immigrants first arrive in this country,
legal or not, they should be encouraged to learn English. Right
now, they don't have to. They can live here quite easily and
even drive without speaking ANY English. They can get government
forms in Spanish and almost all offices and departments have
interpreters available for them. This certainly makes it easier
and safer for them to live here, but it is perpetuating the
problem and proving to them that learning English is
unnecessary. When Hispanic immigrants don't learn English, they
are doomed to remain second class citizens (or never become
citizens). They are segregated in their "ghettos" and never
assimilate. They are forced to take low paying jobs, their
children are raised in poverty, often don't finish school, take
low paying jobs themselves, raise their own children in poverty
and remain in this cycle.
Our federal and local governments must organize English classes
for all immigrants, regardless of legal status. While they are
learning English, they should be taught some of our laws and
history. If these people are ever to become citizens, they must
be given the opportunity to learn how to do that. This isn't
something people can figure out for themselves, they have to be
taught.
Obviously there will be some cost to this, but the returns will
more than make up for it. If these newcomers understand the
language and laws, they will not get in as much legal trouble or
traffic accidents, they will be able to get better jobs and pay
more taxes, they will be healthier, they will be loyal Americans
and contribute much more to this country. When parents speak
English and get involved in their children's schools, the
children are likely to get better grades and the school
benefits. When the schools are more successful, it helps the
neighborhood.
Much of the animosity felt by citizens here is because these
immigrants don't speak English. Some think they are stupid, some
think they are arrogant, some think they are dangerous. They
actually are probably confused, scared or shy because they can't
communicate. If these people, the immigrants and the ones who
are feeling the animosity, started talking to each other and
found out all the things they have in common, I'm sure the bad
feelings would dissolve. That can only happen with a common
language.
About 50% of Europeans speak more than one language and only 10%
of Americans do. Most Americans don't realize how difficult it
is to learn a language as an adult and don't have much
compassion for immigrants who have heavy accents or are too shy
to try out their few English words and learn more.
Americans can do so much more to help immigrants. This country
was built by immigrants, imagine how hard it was for our
grandparents to move here and learn the language and the culture
and succeed. They helped make this a strong country, we can help
make it even stronger by helping the new residents integrate
into this society and become Americans.
Immigrants have to be shown how important it is to learn English
and how much they will benefit when they do. Their success adds
to our success and everyone who lives here benefits when
immigrants succeed.