Everyone should read Chapter 9 of Levin's "Liberty and Tyranny," where he writes about Immigration. He makes some very interesting comments about how older generations of immigrants assimilated into America, and today's immigrants fail to do so. Its why many large cities have Little Italy, Germantown, Chinatown, etc. There are still pockets of each culture, but overall, the immigrants assimilated into the country, learning to speak English and becoming educated in our school systems. Even if you don't agree with the Conservative point of view, this is an excellent read. My next read is "Rules for Radicals" so that I can educate myself on the strategies employed by the Extremists in our society.
This isn't really true. With any wave of immigration it generally takes three generations to become assimilated. If you look at any period in American history where there was a heavy immigration the same things were said about culture and assimilation. During the Irish immigrations people were worried about the use of Gaelic. The same thing goes for the Slavs. The existance of neighborhoods like Chinatown and Little Italy proves that the first generation of immigrants wanted to speak Italian and Chinese and not assimilate.
This is the problem I have with Mexican immigrants. I live in a city that has lots of Mexican immigrants, but we also have tons of Asian immigrants, too; one of the largest concentrations in the country. The Asian immigrants still speak their native languages at home; their kids are bilingual, and the dads generally are, as well. The moms come along a little slower, but I can still speak to an Asian mother whose child I teach. The same cannot be said for my Mexican students. I cannot speak to their mothers (although I am starting to understand a lot of Spanish--who knows? I may be able to speak it before long.) The Asian kids pick up English much faster, though. They will go from a beginning ESL student one year to honors English the next. Perhaps that's because education is more valued in their culture. The Mexican families can also be really good people, but actually learning English and assimilating would help them and their children so much more than holding on to ONLY their culture.
