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Mexicans and assimilation: The challenge

Published on: 04/06/06
The symbolic unfurling of the Mexican flag — proudly waved at huge rallies in Los Angeles and at smaller demonstrations in Atlanta in recent weeks — seemed to confirm for many people that illegal immigrants aren't really interested in being Americans.

Bilingual signs marking the aisles at Home Depot may be easy for most of us to understand — given the huge number of Spanish-speakers now among us — but flaunting the Mexican flag and demanding rights accorded to U.S. citizens when you are in the country illegally is, well, something altogether different — and troubling.

Of all the issues surrounding the national debate over what to do about illegal immigration, one of the most daunting is assimilation.

It goes to the core of what we think it means to be an American. The failure-to-assimilate among this latest group of immigrants is a genuine concern. But it isn't based on their desire to "colonize" their new country, as zealot nativists like to claim, nor a rejection of American values. It is simply the result of a changed world.

Indeed, there were days in years past when Irish and Italian immigrants felt oppressed in their adopted country and protested their treatment under the banners of their homelands. It took some time, but these groups eventually intermarried and assimilated into the melting pot of American society, in politics, entertainment and elsewhere. Latino immigrants are well on their way along the same route.

But, on the other hand, the Mexican flag at the recent protests can also be seen as a demand for special rights by a new group of immigrants — as many as 6 million, by most accounts — for whom borders and national sovereignty hold little meaning. They aren't melting into a multi-ethnic pot as much as being mixed into a societal salad bowl where they and others believe no one culture should dominate.

I'm reminded of a trip to Bolivia my son and I took several years ago. We were seeking a driver to take us up the side of a mountain in a tiny village outside of Santa Cruz. We found a guy who said we could pay him in either dollars or Bolivianos. I didn't have enough of either. But in this tiny village with no bank, there was an ATM and it asked me if I wanted to conduct the transaction in Spanish or English. To the ATM, I wasn't an American in a foreign land, I was just a Visa cardholder who needed cash.

Excuse the little travelogue, but my point is that in Bolivia, the poorest country on the continent, the new world order was at work — transcending borders, languages, currency and customs. On a much, much larger scale, that is what's happening now with Mexican immigrants — legal and illegal — in the United States.

The country, its commerce and its social institutions (schools, churches, service organizations, etc.) are adapting to them, perhaps faster than they are adapting to us. In previous immigration waves, the provision of social services needed for successful assimilation — health care for the sick, language instruction, even employment — was often carried out by charities or ethnic and religious support groups. The government kept its distance.

It isn't like that now. Nor should it be. Public schools recognize their role — their very expensive role — in educating immigrants and teaching them the language skills they need. Hospitals provide emergency services to immigrants regardless of their legal status and the government pays for much of it. In this way, the new arrivals have already come to depend on the government to help them assimilate.

And within the new immigrant communities, the communication network is so pervasive and accessible that it actually diminishes the need to conduct commerce, converse and be entertained by the dominant cultural influences of the new land. We were surprised by the huge demonstrations of the last few weeks because we weren't listening to Latino radio personalities on hundreds of stations around the country urging their listeners to take to the streets.

I suspect this "failure" to integrate into the dominant society is more the result of the dramatic changes in the law, mass communication, the world economy and other forces than it is a refusal by this group of immigrants to embrace us and the core values we hold.

Still, how all of us respond to those changes will determine the success or failure of this latest round of American assimilation.

•Mike King is a member of the editorial board. His column runs Thursdays.