In the early 1990s, the newspaper reported recently, 13.8 percent of residents 5 and older spoke a foreign language in their U.S. homes. In 2007, that percentage had grown to 19.7 percent. But keep this in mind: In 80 percent of U.S. homes the only language spoken is English.

Back in the day, say in mid-1800s to early 1900s, after this country had absorbed great numbers of European immigrants, could it be said that 80 percent of America’s households spoke only English? The answer to that question would surely be no as it to pertained to the American Northeast of that era, which contained great populations of Italian, Polish, German and Russian immigrants, to name a few.

There was no talk radio in that day, or Fox News for that matter, to report on and comment about the great assault of European immigrants on the American identity. There were nativists of that day, to be sure, now long forgotten as America got on with its business of assimilating immigrants and their descendants to this country’s way of economic and social life.

It’s just like today. While the great nationalists and self-appointed defenders of America advocate the building of border walls and revoking the citizenship of certain U.S.-born children, immigrants and their descendants are learning English, just like the Polish, German, Russians and Italians did back in bygone eras.

 From the Dec. 9, 2008 issue of USA Today, there is this headline: “More Hispanics fluent in English.” Hardly breaking news, I realize, but to hear the right-tilting rhetoric of recent years one would think immigrants of the Latino variety are intent on washing the U.S. in waves of enes. The picture instead is of the sort seen for generations in this country, which is first generation is dominant in language of the immigrants, with second and third generations quickly becoming English dominant.

The USA Today says as much with the lead to its story saying, “More Spanish speakers are speaking English very well despite a steady influx of immigrants this decade, a sign that they are blending in linguistically.”

The newspaper reached that conclusion after its analysis of the American Community Survey, which was released recently by the U.S. Census Bureau. The USA Today article showed that in several urban counties - such as those containing Los Angeles, Tucson, El Paso and Atlanta - the percentages of Hispanics having trouble speaking English dropped or stayed steady despite the growth of immigration in recent years.

How can this be? The children of these immigrants are quickly picking up English and assimilating into American life, just as previous immigrants from other parts of the world did in other eras. So the dynamic of a more bilingual nation forming from 1990-2007 was balanced by the willingness of immigrants and their children to take on the challenge of learning a new language, (English). It’s a complex linguistic brew, and one not one easily understood by the talk radio nation and their urges for simplicity of predictable thought patterns.

“Sometimes we’re too impatient for new immigrants to learn English,” said Patricia Gomez, the executive director of a Chicago-area non-profit group that offers English classes in conjuction with a local community college. “Fifty or 100 years ago, it was understood that the first generation would not be speaking English.”

In making those comments to USA Today, Gomez also had another pertinent observation. Those day and evening English classes she helps arrange with the local college? They are all full. It seems that immigrants, most of them Latinos, want to learn English. Who figured?

Even supporters of immigration reform, including President-elect Obama, sometimes appear to underestimate the yearning of present-day immigrants to learn English. They will cite the need to learn English as a requirement for application of U.S. citizenship as if it’s a burden many immigrants do not want to embrace. That’s a misplaced assumption in the vast majority of cases involving today’s immigrants, just as it was of newcomers of long ago.

Here’s the thing. The great American Melting Pot is working like it always has. More American folk should be confident in its ability to continue its unhindered march, scooping up newcomers and their children, and weaving them into this 50-state union, just like always.

- R.D. Cavazos

Post from: The Daily Chisme

Don’t bet on it.

With economic issues front and center, it’s understandable that the president-elect will immeadiately face what most Americans would consider to be more pressing matters, including a deep recession and the loss of hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs as key industries struggle for viability. The fire and fervor of the great U.S. immigration debate of 2006 seems a bit of a distant memory now that American voters have mostly dispatched the hard right rhetoric from the usual suspects.

The House Republicans whose blood boiled over Mexican immigrants two years ago are still an angry bunch, but they have largely been marginalized over the last two national elections. Democrats have built larger majorities in the House and Senate. It appears that Senate Dems will have 58 seats in getting ever closer to the sort of numbers that can overcome the sort of legislative blockade that sunk immigration reform efforts in 2006.

Bashing Latinos and immigrants is not a winning ticket for the beleaguered Republicans, but don’t expect many of their leaders to get it. They can’t help themselves, it would seem, and even after losing a presidential election in which the Democratic candidate gained nearly 70 percent of the Hispanic vote, right-tilting GOPers will keep at it, clinging to their ideology above all else on issues such as immigration.

This was in evidence again this week after Obama announced that he was nominating Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano to be the nation’s third Homeland Security secretary. Napolitano’s credentials for the job are solid beyond being a border governor who has had to address difficult immigration issues. She was also Arizona’s attorney general, and before that was the U.S. attorney for Arizona, where she was one of the federal government’s chief prosecutors in the Southwest.

Napolitano has largely been a centrist on the immigration issue, raising the ire of both the political right and left in her state, where this issue has a particular volatility. As governor, Napolitano spoke out forcefully against the construction of a border fence, and also vetoed legislation that would allow police officers to arrest undocumented immigrants. She also worked to bring humanitarian help to immigrants who get lost and wander the Arizona desert while entering the country illegally.

On the flip side, Napolitano signed into law legislation that would fine, and possibly shut down businesses in Arizona that hire undocumented immigrants. It’s a varied and pragmatic view on a contentious issue. Gov. Napolitano has been tough on illegal immigration while also showing compassion toward immigrants.

That’s not good enough for Lamar Smith, a Texas congressman, and one of the more stridently anti-immigrant Republicans in the House. After Obama’s selection of Napolitano this week, Smith told USA Today that the Arizona governor is “nothing more than a sheep in wolf’s clothing” when it comes to immigration enforcement.

To the dismay of Smith and others of his political ilk, Obama’s nomination of Napolitano to be Homeland Security secretary increases the odds the president-elect will take up some form of immigration reform in his first term given the governor’s knowledge of the issue, and her background from the Southwest.

Unlike her predecessors in Homeland Security - both of whom are from the Northeast and know little if anything about immigration and the border - Napolitano’s nomination should bring some reassurance to regions like the Rio Grande Valley. A region like ours understands the need for border security while also  believing that the needs of business and commerce should be taken into consideration, along with the value of contributions made by immigrants.

Napolitano was firm in her support of the immigration reform bill that failed two years, which attempted to balance border security with the need to deal realistically with the 10-million plus undocumented immigrants now living in the United States. One of her key determinations will be whether to continue with the construction of costly border fences in a time of limited resources when those dollars could be better used to hire and train more Border Patrol agents and other federal law enforcement officers.

Napolitano’s scope as Homeland Security secretary will go far beyond border and immigration issues. Still, it will be good to finally have a leader in Homeland Security of her stature and knowledge who will view the border as more than a place to put up barriers when a more balanced and varied view is needed to address some of the more difficult issues of our day.

- R.D. Cavazos

Post from: The Daily Chisme