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 Editorials | Opinions | July 2007 
Accept the Tired, Poor no Matter the Language
 Andrew Greeley - Times Union
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The screaming mobs of immigrant-hating nativists are celebrating their victory. Using the cry of "no amnesty" as a shibboleth, they have blocked any opportunity for current immigrants to gain American citizenship. Yet that used to be their goal. They have also blocked serious efforts at better defense of U.S. borders. They have cut off their noses to spite their faces, giving the 12 million undocumented immigrants de facto amnesty.
With the few exceptions who might be swept up in random raids by the feds, the so-called "illegals" are permitted to stay in America, to earn eight times as much as they would earn in Mexico, to own homes, to save money, to raise their children who might be born here as Americans, to watch American television, to play American sports (like soccer). All that is forbidden them is eventual citizenship. For the Minutemen and similar sickos, that does not sound like victory. The haters and the bigots lose stricter enforcement, while the immigrants stay here. That's the other magic word for nativists. It is spoken through tight lips and with steely eyes, clenched teeth and grim determination. If you say "enforcement" strongly enough, that seems to guarantee that it will happen. The "enforcers," however, lost $4 billion when they killed President Bush's immigration reform bill. They are no better able to enforce the archaic immigration laws they were a year ago.
More agents and higher walls would slow down perhaps but not stop the hordes of humans who want to become Americans. Only shooting them on sight would do the job. The harshness of those who speak "enforcement" trippingly on the tongue hints that this is what they mean.
Many of the so-called illegals no doubt would like to become legal, to win green cards, and to eventually become citizens and even vote. But they will settle for the chance to live in this country and earn decent salaries for their hard work. So they are the winners in wake of the defeat of the immigration bill.
One of the dishonest cliches that the bigots prattle about immigrants is that they don't speak English. Neither, in fact, did most of our ancestors when they got off the boat at Ellis Island. Even the famine Irish from the west of Ireland spoke Irish, not English. The so-called Brooklyn accent that permeates much of the Big Apple is the remaining trace of English spoken by the Irish speakers. The children of immigrants (the second generation) of our ancestors spoke pretty good English, and their grandchildren (third generation) spoke English as their first language. All the available research on Latinos supports the conclusion that they follow the same pattern, though the English-speaking rates for the Latinos is higher than it was for most other immigrant groups.
Will the horde of immigrants ever stop? The Mexican birth rate has declined from 4.7 to 2.1, the same as in this country. When this takes full effect, as it has in Ireland and England and Germany, this country might have to recruit foreign workers.
As a little boy, I was riding the Chicago subway with my mother long ago. Across from us, a couple of elderly women were speaking Italian. My mother whispered to me that if they wanted to be Americans, they should learn to speak English. If I knew then what I know how, I might have replied, "Their grandchildren will speak it as well as I do, maybe better."
But then we, as early entrants into the melting pot, believed that it was for everyone.
Andrew Greeley's email address is agreel@aol.com. |
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