Their Future Is Ours [Next Cultural Tsunami: 75% And More BELOW 85th % In English Proficiency!]

NYTimes ^ | November 17th, 2009

[Steelfish]

EDITORIAL

November 16, 2009

There are 16 million children in immigrant families in the United States, one of the fastest-growing segments of the population. It’s an old American story made new (snip) when waves of human displacement in recent decades have led to immigration on a scale not seen since Ellis Island.

But a country that has been so good for so long at integrating new Americans is stumbling under the challenge.

That is the conclusion of Professors Marcelo and Carola Suárez-Orozco, fellows at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and co-directors of immigration studies at New York University. They have done basic research in immigration for more than 20 years, five of them studying 400 children from China, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Central America and Mexico.

The results of their research, released this month, show the stark effects of what Marcelo Suárez-Orozco calls “the age of global vertigo.” Dislocation breeds a host of difficulties, starting with family separation.

Nearly half of the children in their sample had at some point lost contact with one or both parents, either through migration directly or through divorce or death. The absent parent was most often the father for long stretches or permanently. For 49 percent of the Central American children, separations lasted more than five years.

The children from separated families were, perhaps unsurprising, more likely to show signs of depression. Those symptoms were often accompanied by poverty, isolation and — despite an early period of hopefulness and engagement — a downward academic slide. Immigrant children lagged in mastering standard academic English, the passport to college and to brighter futures.

Whereas native-born children’s language skills follow a bell curve, immigrants’ children were crowded in the lower ranks: More than three-quarters of the sample scored below the 85th percentile in English proficiency.

[Dallas59]

What part of illegal does this idiot not understand. Coming to America in the past meant learning the language and customs and asking to come. None of that is occurring.The illegals nowadays sneak in with a full boat of crap from their original countries that they refuse to bury...crime, poverty, ignorance, superstition and a total lack of respect for anything American including the language.

[aruanan]

Coming to America in the past meant learning the language and customs and asking to come.

Actually, for the largest number of immigrants, coming to America meant coming to America and then learning the language and customs. This has been the case whether the immigrants were from Germany (the largest ethnic group in the United States), Cuba, Ireland, or Italy, to name a few.

[Steelfish]

Doesn’t matter to D’rats. They want voters, so we create compassion and then comes the funding.

[wintertime]

Coming to America in the past meant learning the language and customs and asking to come
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Our Marxist government schools are **deliberately** NOT teaching the language. These children are **deliberately** placed in bi-lingual ghettos.

The Marxists are **deliberately** NOT teaching the culture, values, and customs either. ( Too bourgeois, you see. )

[wintertime]

Last February, my husband and I were assigned to work in the local Spanish congregation of our denomination. ( We speak Spanish.) We run the Scouting program and help every week with the tutoring program. We also attend all their Sunday services and other social activities.
Tonight I was trying to explain to one of the mothers that the Asian and Jewish moms that my husband and I knew through our professions would not allow any computer or video games or Ipod or phone (etc.) unless their children finished **all** their work promptly and **perfectly**! The weekly DVD had to be **earned**! This Spanish mom was amazed.

It is my experience that these kids are quite bright. After all it takes considerable planing, saving, aggressiveness, and organization just to make into the U.S. This is true whether they are here legal or illegally. A person needs to be smart if they are going to pull this off and the kids are indeed smart.

Another problem that I see in the tutoring program is that the local government schools absolutely DO NOT TEACH PHONICS! I don't care what the schools say. If they do teach any phonics it is haphazard and scattered over many years. The children are clueless, frustrated, and many have given up hope.

All the kids in our congregation speak English perfectly.

This Thurs I am taking a Spanish speaking mom to the library to get a library card and to help her check out the “Hooked on Phonics” program. ( I hope this county's library has it. The library where we lived before did. )

[LibFreeOrDie]

Related article (National Review):

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2388762/posts

[nathanbedford]

There is clearly a need for policies and programs to support immigrant parents and children, but the reality is as haphazard and tenuous as these children’s lives often are. Millions are growing up in mixed families, with some members here illegally, others not. Bills to help immigrant families with a path to legalization have died repeatedly in Congress, and small-scale reforms like the Dream Act, a path to college or the military for children of illegal immigrants have been stymied for years. New investments in language education, citizenship preparation and after-school and preschool programs have been derailed by economic crisis, harsh immigration politics and a general lack of attention.

This is the great challenge that is forgotten in the heat of the immigration debate. The children of immigrants are Americans. “They” are “us,” a cohort of newcomers who will be filling the demographic void left as the baby boomers start fading away. Their future is our country’s future. The job of integrating them is not only unfinished but in many critical ways has hardly begun.

One could hardly ask for a more perfect paradigm of liberalism: failed liberal policies (failure to police the borders and control immigration) lead inevitably to foreseeable and unforeseeable consequences (a wave of legal and illegal children, citizen and noncitizen who cannot read, write, compete, or contribute) to which liberals demand standard liberal solutions (amnesty, more money to reward illegal immigrants, more money for... everything) thus treating the symptom rather than the cause (subsidizing illegal immigrants to relieve their misery rather than enforcing the borders) which will only aggravate the problem (encourage more illegal immigration and more anchor babies) and give rise to demand for more liberal solutions.

[heartwood]

I would sort of expect 85% to score beneath the 85th percentile, so to see only “more than three-quarters” there is REALLY encouraging.

[kabar]

The Irish did pretty well mastering the language before they got here.

[Othniel]

In the past, immigrant waves included large groups of educated people or people who had a marketable skill, be it tailoring, butchering, or building. There were also checks in place to see that those with criminal pasts were denied entry. Nowadays, the illegals who skulk in have no marketable skills, and no language other than Spanish (or whatever). Many are criminals, and they commit crimes against us because their own gvt. didn't want to keep them. My own solution would be to cut services, prosecute those who hire them, and deport any and all that are found without proper documentation.

[VeniVidiVici]

But a country that has been so good for so long at integrating new Americans is stumbling under the challenge.

Golly gee willickers, New York Times? I wonder why (illegal) immigrants aren't assimilating?

[TheThinker]

It’s infinitely easier to learn one language through immersion and become proficient at it. It is also infinitely easier for every citizen to learn and communicate with one language.

[jwparkerjr]

re: a country that has been so good for so long at integrating new Americans is stumbling under the challenge

So many who come here today, especially illegally, have no desire to be integrated into our society. Those who came here years ago wanted to be a part of our way of life. Not so these days. They want the benefits of America but have no desire, and frequently no ability, to share the responsibility of keeping America America.

There is simply no comparison between the immigrants of 75 or 100 years ago with the those of today.

[AuntB]

“More than three-quarters of the sample scored below the 85th percentile in English proficiency.”

Recipe for disaster.

[AuntB]

“So many who come here today, especially illegally, have no desire to be integrated into our society. Those who came here years ago wanted to be a part of our way of life. Not so these days. They want the benefits of America but have no desire, and frequently no ability, to share the responsibility of keeping America America.

There is simply no comparison between the immigrants of 75 or 100 years ago with the those of today.”

Exactly!

Most importantly...their loyalty is NOT to the USA!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2362258/posts

* An overwhelming majority (69 percent) of people in Mexico thought that the primary loyalty of Mexican-Americans (Mexico- and U.S.-born) should be to Mexico. Just 20 percent said it should be to the United States. The rest were unsure.

[aruanan]

The Irish did pretty well mastering the language before they got here.

Yes, but they did have to sober up before anyone could understand them. Incidentally, the Irish as a group were one of the ethnic groups with the slowest economic rise in the U.S. because so many of them chose to rely on government apparatus to attain societal position. Blacks were one of the fastest rising ethnic groups, until the 1960s, after which their ascent slowed dramatically. Again, due to dependence on government.

[kabar]

Yes, but they did have to sober up before anyone could understand them. Incidentally, the Irish as a group were one of the ethnic groups with the slowest economic rise in the U.S. because so many of them chose to rely on government apparatus to attain societal position.

You are wrong. Irish immigration

The Irish in America: Long Journey Home

You sober up you racist bastard.

Blacks were one of the fastest rising ethnic groups, until the 1960s, after which their ascent slowed dramatically. Again, due to dependence on government.

Fasting rising beginning when? Since they emerged from slavery? What killed black prosperity was the breakdown of the family and the Immigration Act of 1965.

[aruanan]

You sober up you racist bastard.

Geez, lighten up! Does one have to use < / sarc > or ;-} with all comments because people cannot contextualize properly?

Fasting rising beginning when? Since they emerged from slavery? What killed black prosperity was the breakdown of the family and the Immigration Act of 1965

Actually, black prosperity in the South took a nosedive from Reconstruction almost until WWII. It was impeded during Reconstruction and later by racist Southern Democrats. The big increase in black prosperity was between WWII and the 1960's War on Poverty/Great Society programs. The breakdown of the black family was due to federal government policies largely enacted during the 60's and following, largely by racist Democrats. The Immigration Act of 1965 is fairly irrelevant since the number of immigrants entering as result was a much smaller percentage of the American population than the number of immigrants coming during the 19th century.

[kabar]

Geez, lighten up! Does one have to use < / sarc > or ;-} with all comments because people cannot contextualize properly?

As someone who is proud of his Irish heritage and the contributions that the Irish have made to this Republic, I view the stereotype of the Irish drunk to be offensive and untrue. Today the Irish are one of the most prosperous ethnic groups in the United States, significantly exceeding national averages on education levels, occupational status, income, and home ownership.

The Immigration Act of 1965 is fairly irrelevant since the number of immigrants entering as result was a much smaller percentage of the American population than the number of immigrants coming during the 19th century.

You again demonstrate a total ignorance of the facts. Immigrants account for one in 8 U.S. residents, the highest level in more than 80 years. In 1970 it was one in 21; in 1980 it was one in 16; and in 1990 it was one in 13. In a decade, it will be one in 7, the highest it has been in our history. And by 2050, one in 5 residents of the U.S. will be foreign-born and one in three will be Hispanic. There are over 40 million foreign born in this country. The U.S. adds one international migrant (net) every 36 seconds.

The 1965 Immigration Act: Anatomy of a Disaster