Thread: Experts:U.S. Must Help Immigrants Assimilate

Experts: U.S. must help immigrants assimilate

Tyche Hendricks, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, January 19, 2009

(01-18) 18:31 PST -- The United States has one of the world's most generous immigration policies, but it has done too little to help new immigrants fit into society, scholars and advocates say.

Now, at the end of President Bush's eight years in office, a federal task force he convened is echoing those concerns, saying, "Government can do more to help newcomers learn English, learn about America and promote integration across our nation."

On the eve of President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration, with immigrants arriving in high numbers and anxiety in some quarters about a fracturing American identity, the issue is pressing, but some observers wonder whether Obama will take up the issue or put it behind more urgent concerns.

"It's a roadmap for future administrations on how to strengthen the assimilation of new Americans," said the report's lead author, Alfonso Aguilar, in his final days as chief of the Office of Citizenship at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The report, "Building an Americanization Movement for the Twenty-first Century," released late last month, noted that "while immigration is a federal responsibility, immigrants do not settle in the federal sphere, but rather in cities and local communities."

Many examples in San Francisco bear that out. At the Chinatown campus of City College, thousands of immigrant adults attend classes in English and civics each week, preparing for their citizenship exams. The scene is repeated at eight other campuses around the city, where vocational classes also teach immigrants and others job skills to help them join the American workforce.

In San Francisco and across the Bay Area and the nation, community colleges and adult schools are on the front lines helping foreigners become full participants in American society, but they're stretched to bursting.

"We always have waiting lists," said Joanne Low, Chinatown campus dean. "Our funding formula results in us getting less money each year for civic participation."

More needs to be done

Aguilar emphasized that integration is happening, as evidenced by high rates of naturalization, homeownership, English acquisition and marriage outside an immigrant's ethnic group. But as the nation becomes more diverse and new arrivals disperse into communities that don't have a history of incorporating immigrants, more needs to be done, he said.

"We should live by a model of diversity within unity," Aguilar said. "While diversity ... enriches our cultural fabric, it's unity that keeps America successful: a strong, thriving democracy where the rule of law prevails."

Bush called for the study of immigrant integration in 2006 as part of his push for comprehensive immigration reform, Aguilar said. But those who were disappointed that the outgoing president failed to achieve an overhaul of the nation's immigration laws were skeptical about the timing of the report's release.

"I appreciate the fact that the Bush administration is putting this out there, but it's appalling and frustrating ... that we did not see more tangible support for the integration of immigrants during his time as president," said Janet Murguia, president of the National Council of La Raza.

Some immigration scholars say the United States, unlike other Western democracies, puts very little effort into bringing immigrants into the American political process. Canada, for example, sends a letter to every immigrant when he or she becomes eligible to apply for citizenship, according to UC Irvine political science Professor Louis DeSipio. The United States does not.

"We individualize the responsibility and don't see the state as having any responsibility. Consequently you see wide differences in the propensity to naturalize on a national origin and a class basis. That is problematic in a nation like ours that bases itself on the notion of e pluribus unum," he said, referring to the Latin motto "out of many, one."

A call for volunteers

The task force recommends that the next president use the bully pulpit to encourage volunteers to get involved through churches and community organizations. But it does not recommend a lot of new federal spending.

"We're not calling for new entitlement program for immigrants," Aguilar said.

But professionals like Low, who struggle to provide English instruction and citizenship education, were disappointed.

"What are they proposing in terms of funding?" Low asked. "I thought it would be more concrete: 'There's money for this' or 'This is going to happen.' ... Instead, it was vague guidelines."

Others wanted to see the proposal go beyond civic integration to better incorporate immigrants into the economy.

"Given the fact that we're about to see the stimulus package roll out the door, this is one logical place to spend those funds," said Michael Fix, co-director of a project on immigrant integration at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington. "I would like to see greater alertness to the need to integrate workforce training and language training ... because immigrants are such a critical share of the labor force and they're going to have to play a role in pulling us out of this recession."

Fix also called for more federal investment in English-language instruction, something he predicted could ramp up during the Obama administration if Congress approves immigration reform that offers legal status to some of the nation's estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants.

Perhaps the most important part of Bush's legacy in incorporating immigrant families is his inclusion of tough accountability provisions for teaching "limited-English" students under the No Child Left Behind Act, Fix said.

"It will eventually improve instruction and performance in that population, improve graduation rates and, in the end, improve life outcomes," he said.

The most surprising finding of the two-year study, which included meetings with community leaders across the country, Aguilar said, was the need to better teach U.S.-born citizens that in this pluralistic democracy, all immigrants can become fully American, regardless of their language, skin color or country of birth.

"Integration is a two-way street: It's important to require immigrants to integrate, but it's also important for society to be welcoming," he said. "It's not only immigrants that have to understand the principles of American democracy - our own citizens must as well."

Online resource
To read "Building an Americanization Movement for the Twenty-first Century," go to:

http://www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/M-708.pdf

E-mail Tyche Hendricks at thendricks@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 15BVJQ.DTL

Sorry.......they have been given more special help and special consideration that I say we have done enough......get with the program or leave.

That's all we have ever done....help people. They have their part and as long as anyone out there telling them they don't have to now, then no amount of "help" will do anything.

You know if our damn media and government stopped trying to do everything for them them might actually want to assimilate for themselves!!! Just make English a requirement and the rest should fall into place or be deported!

Fix also called for more federal investment in English-language instruction, something he predicted could ramp up during the Obama administration if Congress approves immigration reform that offers legal status to some of the nation's estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants.

This isnt going to happen. No one is going to approve legal status to over 12 million illegal immigrants. They might as well go home because they are going to be caught and deported. Americans are not going to stand for this happening. Especially with the economy the way it is now.
And no one knows who these illegal people are, especially the illegal Mexicans that came here. We are being threatened by the very existence of Mexico which is the most corrupt country in the world being right next door. Mexico has encouraged all of their people to come here and we have no way of knowing their intentions. They could be linked to the drug cartels, or be murderers, rapists, molesters, or worse. No one knows. So the only right thing our country can do is keep all Mexicans out of the U.S. unless they legally apply to enter our country. If our lawmakers dont act on this immediately, our country will sink into the same category as France and other countries that allowed illegal immigration to get out of control. There will be civil violence in America like those other countries are experiencing now. We need to deport all the illegal immigrants here, and if their families dont want to be split up, they have the choice of moving out with them.

There ia a HUGE differance between an Illegal Immigrant and a Legal Immigrant

If the Illegals will not Self Deport ~ Arrest them and then send them packing

"Experts: U.S. must help immigrants assimilate"

"Help" them assimilate or MAKE them assimilate ?

Tax all non-English media and use the money to teach immigrants English.

Wait a minute. No one ask any immigrant to come here. If someone from another country makes the decision to come to the USA to live, then it is their responsibility to figure out how to assimilate. Had I chosen to move to Buenos Aires instead of my wife coming to the USA, I certainly would not have expected Argentina to assist me in living there.