Posted on 07/11/2008 10:31:28 AM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
John McCain and Barack Obama both gave speeches at the League of United Latin American Citizens convention in Wash ington - and in the 4,600 words they spoke between them didn't mention assimilation once.
Never mind that assimilation is the key to the historic success of American immigration. We all know how it classically works: An immigrant group comes to the US with low levels of education and income, living in ethnic enclaves and clinging to its original culture; then, its children improve their socio-economic lot, and the children-of-the-children get even further ahead, until they are all doctors and lawyers living in the suburbs and recalling the culture of the homeland mainly during holidays or ethnic festivals.
But for the bulk of new Latino immigrants - Mexican-Americans - it's not working this way. In their book-length study "Generations of Exclusion," UCLA sociologists Edward E. Telles and Vilma Ortiz paint an alarming picture of assimilation proceeding only haltingly and sometimes stalling out entirely.
Telles and Ortiz use extensive post-1965 survey data from Los Angeles and San Antonio to follow four generations of Mexican-Americans. Generally, they find clear progress from the first generation to the second, in educational attainment, income and linguistic and cultural assimilation. But then progress gets slower and sometimes reverses.
Consider education. After big initial gains, Torres and Ortiz found, "Mexican-American schooling remained fairly flat in succeeding generations."
Education affects economic status. "Our findings show a consistent lack of economic progress across generations-since-immigration," they write, and "income and earnings for the fourth generation do not differ significantly from those of the second and third generation." The upshot: "The income inequality between Mexican-Americans and other Americans worsened in most cases between 1970 and 2000."
How about moving out of ethnic enclaves?
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Yep! bttt
Yep, the liberals nowadays say that America is not a melting pot anymore. Instead, we’re a salad bowl, full of different ingredients mixed together but still separate and distinct ingredients. Some of us are lettuce, some of us are tomatoes, some of us are croutons, and the rest of us are different flavors of salad dressing. Or so they say.
Spanish: the language of poverty.
Any group that fails to assimilate will fail in America.
It does not mean you deny your culture and heritage - it means you behave as a mainstream American.
You need look no further than the core Obama constituency that will turn out 92% or more in his favor in November.
Liberals are the compost pile...
The liberals sure do lecture us about being a nation of immigrants and our ancestors came here, yadda, yadda, yadda.
A big question which should be asked, is, do we have a right to keep our American culture, or do we have to accomodate newcomers? Should we have to change to accomodate them, or is the burden on them to change to accomodate themselves to America?
This may be more important esp. with Muslim immigration. I think in Britian they are agitating to have Sharia law within their communities there. Can you imagine that happening here? Shouldn’t there be a pre-supposition that any immigrant wants to come to America to be part of what America is, rather than wanting to change America to be like their home countries?
Not a nation of "immigrants", but of "settlers." Immigrants may come and go, but settlers come to till the soil, to build a country, to work and improve it, and to defend what they create.
Words mean things, and liberals know it too, even while they deny it.
You are correct. My wife is from Mexico but her father sent her to schools in Mexico to learn English as well as her normal studies. He did this for all his children and then sent them to the University of Texas. All of them graduated. He paid out of state tuition for all of them. All three have good jobs. My wife graduated at the top of her class in computer science.
The government gave them nothing and they asked for nothing. Spanish and English is spoken in my house, I am Anglo but grew up on the border. When we go out of the house to work the name of the game is English not Spanish. My wife is living the American Dream because she can compete in our society in ENGLISH.
Each and every program the government comes up with caters to the Spanish speakers in their native tongue. This is the recipe for economic enslavement of the non English speaking individuals.
Instead, were a salad bowl,
((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((
Divide and conquer.
Kill the Goose that lays the Golden Egg.
etc.
A great report. Any chance you could write it up for Latino publications? It’s exactly what they need to hear over and over and over again.
It’s really very simple.
The Mexicans come here for the MONEY and the GOVERNMENT BENIES.
They could care less about our culture and being assimilated.
Which reminds me of a quick joke.
From the dyslexic Borg:
“Borg we are. Your ass will be laminated.”
McCain can pander to hispanics all he wants - he will not recieve my vote. I wont vote for Obama but I actually believe he is better than McCain - I would rather go over the cliff at 100mph than putter along at 10mph with McCain. If America is going to be ruined at least let get it on with Obama - McCain will only stab conservatives in the back while he smiles to their face - I want to know my enemy.
They have a choice: become one of US or stay one of THEM.
Too many are choosing the latter.
It’s great to be proud of your Latino heritage. It’s stupid to be proud of dropping out of high school, being a gang member, or being an unwed mother or father as a teenager.
Our leaders have been drinking diversity koolaid and want us all to do it, too. Drink it!
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