[lbo-talk] Dean Baker on immigration

Marvin Gandall marvgandall at videotron.ca
Tue Apr 18 04:39:04 PDT 2006


Marta Russell wrote:


>> My neighbor who speaks some English is raising her son in a Russian
>> nursery school where no English is spoken. She works in a doctor's
>> office where there is a Russian clientele and they do not use
>> English. While many of you may disagree with my discomfort at this
>> change, I have watched my neighborhood become absorbed by a different
>> culture which I find uninviting and alienating. I simply cannot
>> communicate with people who only speak Farsi or Russian. It has
>> totally changed the character of things here. I don't like it. That
>> is my personal feeling and I am entitled to it. I like the feeling
>> of being in a neighborhood where people can know each other because
>> they share a means of communication. It is not xenophobia it is my
>> preference that people who come here learn to speak the English
>> language.

Yoshie replied:


> I'm sure many hearing people have the same discomfort at being
> surrounded by people who use a sign language. They can't communicate
> with them because they haven't learned it, just as you can't
> communicate with Farsi and Russian speakers because you haven't
> learned either.
=========================== Moreover, the second generation learns the main national language at school and in the street. They need it to in order to enter the labour force. Immigrant parents without exception want their children to acquire the language of work, even in the setting of their own ethnic schools. As the second and subsequent generations acquire the ability to speak unaccented English (or other majority languages in their host countries) and adopt the prevailing cultural fashions, they become less subject to xenophobia. And except for older immigrants who are supported by their families and communities, learning the new language is true also of new immigrants, to an extent determined by the requirements of the sector in which they're seeking work. It's unfortunate there is so little tolerance of this process, especially by people who should know better.



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