Here we go again with the English language / assimilation yammer:
WASHINGTON — American civilization eventually will collapse if government doesn’t do a better job assimilating immigrants into society, possible GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said Wednesday as he urged Congress to enshrine English as the nation’s official language.
The former House speaker said political correctness and multiculturalism are clouding the debate about language.
“If you are pro-immigration to America, you should be pro-assimilation into English as the common language because in fact your children and grandchildren will have a dramatically better future if they are part of the common commercial civilization,” Gingrich said.
Newt, please, take a breath. Assume the lotus position or something — you’re going to hurt yourself here.
Seriously. Polimom knows many immigrants, and there’s not one who isn’t trying to learn English. Some do better with it, some worse.
American civilization isn’t having a problem assimilating immigrants. Adults are learning English as best they can while they perform jobs and learn our ways — just as they always have. Their children are growing up with perfect English — just as they always have. Their grandchildren will be indistinguishable from every other American, and just as assimilated as the rest of us.
The problem with Newt’s inflammatory rhetoric is that there’s a nugget of truth underlying it: life is much easier here, and the future is brighter, when one speaks English.
But that’s not new, nor even news. We all know this, and so do the immigrants of today.
My great-great-grandfather never learned to speak the language; he spoke Swedish and German until he died, and lived in an isolated immigrant farming community. My great-grandmother, who was born in the U.S., spoke English with a very heavy accent, but she managed the language well enough to start her own business after her husband died… and her son (my grandfather), spoke English with no accent whatsoever, as well as his ancestral languages.
Nothing is different now. Saying the sky is falling doesn’t make it so.