Log in

View Full Version : Why They Won't Assimilate



stephanie
05-21-2007, 03:47 PM
By Selwyn Duke
Today's immigrants are not assimilating into our culture. Ted Kennedy's Immigration Reform Act of 1965 has created a situation in which 85 percent of our immigrants hail from the Third World and Asia. This portends the destruction of the western civilization that has given us everything we hold dear, from our freedom to our prosperity, not for reasons of race, but because of circumstances at least partly created by Americans ourselves.

Assimilation is not a process magically initiated upon setting foot on American terra firma. Rather, it only occurs when one or both of two conditions are met: The foreign elements must have a desire to assimilate or the host nation must place pressure on them to do so. Unfortunately, neither is the case today because both immigrants and native-born Americans are far different than they once were.


I've pointed out that a nation allows its stabilizing majority to disappear at its own peril (unprecedented Third World immigration has reduced America's European-heritage population from almost 90 percent to about 66 percent in just a little more than four decades). But a critic could rightly mention that white Americans weren't always viewed so monolithically. When our nation saw a huge influx of Irish, Italian and German immigrants, there was often great group conflict; ethnic slurs passed lips and fights were not uncommon (amazing how they negotiated this period without "hate crime" laws, huh?). Yet, there was a difference.

Immigrants: Today vs. Yesteryear


Today's M&M influx (Moslems and Mexicans) is distinguished from previous immigrant waves by a sense of entitlement. A Zogby poll found that 58 percent of Mexicans believe California and the Southwest rightly belong to them. Although this belief is bred by a tendentious view of history, it doesn't change the end result. It has spawned groups such as Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA), which advocates conquering the Southwest in the name of Mexico. More significantly, it causes many average Mexicans to have no compunction about imposing their culture and language on the country that has so generously given them succor.


Where Mexicans exhibit ethnic patriotism, Moslems manifest religious chauvinism. Far too many pious Moslems believe they have been enjoined to impose their faith on others by any means necessary; this is why they will unabashedly demand concessions, such as their own dormitories at colleges and an Arabic public school in New York City. It's also why they have fought for the right to use sharia law to settle civil disputes in Canada.


This lies in stark contrast to the behavior of most of yesteryear's immigrants. Like anyone else, they certainly felt comfortable in the bosom of their own subculture; yet, they knew they were in another's land and never viewed accommodation by their host nation as a birthright, and any ethnic patriotism harbored was often trumped by the dream of becoming American. Unfortunately, today's immigrants' dream is often our nightmare, one from which we could arise if only, if only, if only....

Looking at the American in the Mirror


Walt Kelly wrote, "We have met the enemy and he is us." The truth is that when assigning blame, our feet are where the majority of it must lie. There was a time when Americans, like most nationalities, took pride in their culture and defended it with manly fortitude. Today, though, after decades of imbuing the modern mind with the "Hey, hey, ho, ho, western culture's gotta go!" mentality, this is no longer the case. Too many of us have imbibed the multiculturalist malt, with its evenhanded principle stating that others have a right to their cultures and we have a right to them, too. But this philosophical shift has been addressed before, so let's discuss a nuts and bolts aspect of the problem.


Many of us understand how government actively thwarts assimilation by pandering to foreign elements. Our government will print official documents in other languages (the standard California driver's license test is available in 32 of them) just so those without enough respect to learn our national common tongue can collect our national treasure and cast votes for those who lavish it upon them. But this isn't where governmental complicity in this problem ends.


Traditionally, Americans never relied on government to achieve most goals, and ensuring assimilation was no exception. Many years ago, for instance, if a person insisted on dressing like an advertisement for the Middle Ages, didn't learn the language or sought to impose strange beliefs in the workplace, he would have been fired or not hired in the first place. What this means is that the Moslem clerks and cab drivers who, respectively, won't ring up pork and won't pick up passengers with alcohol or seeing-eye dogs would have either changed their ways or returned to where ways don't change. This enforcement of tradition through individual initiative is what almost every non-western country does and makes sense. If you're so enamored of your native ways, stay in your native land.


If you tried this today, though, you'd receive a treatment from the proctologist of government bureaucracies, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Yes, because freedom of association has been trumped by lawless judges, citizens have lost control over their businesses, rental properties and, in many cases, organizations. Privately owned and financed entities can no longer determine who receives paychecks, who will be served and who will be rented to, thus removing the social pressure to conform that the common man would naturally apply via the exercise of his values in his castle. Likewise, local school boards have been robbed of the right to set dress codes and behavior standards reflecting the surrounding community. What this means is now you can't refuse to hire a cross-dressing Columbian from Cartagena. Ah, it sounds almost Jeffersonian... almost. We've now traded liberty for perversity.


America is being erased. The stabilizing majority that forged her unique culture is being eroded through the importation of culturally imperialistic forces by treasonous politicians. And traitors they are, and be not faint-hearted in saying so. After all, if this happened anywhere but in western nations, the lamentation over this cultural imperialism would be staggering. Just imagine if the majority population of Nigeria or Cambodia were rapidly being replaced with a European one. The only question would be whether the nation they hailed from would be targeted by only stupid bureaucrats or also smart bombs.


A wise person once said a definition of insanity is ". . . doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." This aphorism has been attributed variously to Ben Franklin, Albert Einstein, and for all I know, Chief Seattle. Given that we have a greatly diminished sense of national identity, Moslem terrorists blending into a multicultural mish-mash, Spanish supplanting English, and Mexican flags going up while American ones come down, should we really stay the course?

The M&M invasion sympathizers may call me names, but I'll simply render a diagnosis: They're insane. They have turned immigration into an institution. It's time for it to be institutionalized.

Contact Selwyn Duke

http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/05/why_they_wont_assimilate.html

loosecannon
05-21-2007, 03:56 PM
Why they won't assimilate is the million dollar question.

I assert that we always made it hard for every wave of immigrants to assimilate. We made them earn stripes.

But at the same time I believe that for the most part we never allow brown people to assimilate.

We just don't let it happen wholesale like we do white ethnicities like Poles, swedes, russians, jews etc.

Prove me wrong. Show some examples.

Birdzeye
05-21-2007, 04:06 PM
It's been my impression that, regardless of where they came from, the original immigrants often stick to the customs and cultural traditions of the country they came from. It is their children, the first generation born here (or those who were small children when they came to this country) who fully assimilate, and this sometimes causes tensions with the parents who cling to the old traditions.

I can't provide links here, because I'm reflecting on what I've observed over the years with friends and acquaintences who were the first generation born here.

My mother is the daughter of a Polish immigrant, the first generation born here, and the first language she learned was Polish. It was her generation, not her father's, that truly assimilated.

Mr. P
05-21-2007, 05:07 PM
I think this situation will become worse before it gets better, if it gets better.

I also wonder why immigrants would want to come to the USA for and not assimilate. By not to assimilating they are changing the very society they wanted to be a part of, aren't they. Doesn't make sense to me. Must be the Government handouts they get. Can you drop in and get a loan for say a 7-11 or motel anywhere else in the world..You can in the good ole USA..Tax free for 5 years too! Just DAMN!

Birdzeye
05-21-2007, 05:15 PM
I think it's a common thing for people to want to hold onto as many of the "old ways" that they can. I really don't have a problem with that, since the kids seem likely to become fully assimilated, sometimes resulting in tension with the parents when they don't want to follow the "old ways."

Since I lived abroad for six years during my teens, I can assure you that, despite all the help my family got when we still couldn't speak much Spanish, there was a lot of pressure to do things the local way. Sometimes their customs seemed silly or downright asinine to us. I can only imagine that people who come to this country have similar experiences.

Mr. P
05-21-2007, 05:49 PM
I think it's a common thing for people to want to hold onto as many of the "old ways" that they can. I really don't have a problem with that, since the kids seem likely to become fully assimilated, sometimes resulting in tension with the parents when they don't want to follow the "old ways."

Since I lived abroad for six years during my teens, I can assure you that, despite all the help my family got when we still couldn't speak much Spanish, there was a lot of pressure to do things the local way. Sometimes their customs seemed silly or downright asinine to us. I can only imagine that people who come to this country have similar experiences.

I totally understand wanting to keep to the ways you know in another Country, particularly if you intend to leave. But if you're there for what is offered that you want assimilate in that society at least, and be part of it.

Birds of a feather flock together. It's so true. Problem is that doesn't make a United Society.

loosecannon
05-21-2007, 05:56 PM
Good convo.

There is something that makes America special.

I can not be certain if it is the wealth, the diversity, the hardship of arriving and pioneering raw land or just the vast wealth of the land.

But Americans are uniquely creative and expressive. We have qualities that often can not be duplicated or taught.

Perhaps it is that we are a brand new culture that doesn't even have a defined form yet.

Assimilation involves both the immigrants and the indigenous to meeting at a middle place. It isn't purely one sided.

Maybe America is getting full.

Birdzeye
05-21-2007, 06:36 PM
I totally understand wanting to keep to the ways you know in another Country, particularly if you intend to leave. But if you're there for what is offered that you want assimilate in that society at least, and be part of it.

Birds of a feather flock together. It's so true. Problem is that doesn't make a United Society.

However, we as a nation have been very proud of the "melting pot" nature of our society. We expect immigrants to make a living for themselves (this usually involves having to become conversant in English) and obey the laws; I'm not sure that it would be reasonable to ask any more. So I'm wondering what's behind all the brouhaha about the issue of immigrants "assimilating." We've had "Little Polands" and "Little Italys" and other immigrant enclaves in this country for generations.

Kathianne
05-21-2007, 06:43 PM
Why they won't assimilate is the million dollar question.

I assert that we always made it hard for every wave of immigrants to assimilate. We made them earn stripes.

But at the same time I believe that for the most part we never allow brown people to assimilate.

We just don't let it happen wholesale like we do white ethnicities like Poles, swedes, russians, jews etc.

Prove me wrong. Show some examples.

The great number of Hispanics that have always been in the areas of the Mexican Cession. They have owned farming estates, vineyards, etc. for multiple generations, before and after. Then there are the blacks that are now in the upper and middle class, over 50% they are, while it should have been sooner, the numbers since 1964 are staggering. Even greater are the Pacific Islanders/Far Easterners, the Chinese Exclusion Act notwithstanding, they are among such an elite, that colleges routinely weight them downwards, an unfair acknowledgement of their ability to keep the values of their culture.

Hugh Lincoln
05-21-2007, 07:01 PM
Perhaps it is that we are a brand new culture that doesn't even have a defined form yet.

I wouldn't be so sanguine about this "brand new culture," because we've seen it before... when Istanbul was taken from Christians by Muslims, when the Roman Empire fell to the barbarians, etc. I think what's brand new about it is that never in the history of the world has a society voluntarily destroyed itself with such eagerness as America.

Mr. P
05-21-2007, 07:21 PM
However, we as a nation have been very proud of the "melting pot" nature of our society. We expect immigrants to make a living for themselves (this usually involves having to become conversant in English) and obey the laws; I'm not sure that it would be reasonable to ask any more. So I'm wondering what's behind all the brouhaha about the issue of immigrants "assimilating." We've had "Little Polands" and "Little Italys" and other immigrant enclaves in this country for generations.

It's the illegal part for me, as far as this bill goes anyway..Circumventing the legal immigration process, as this bill does, is a detriment to the Country. IMO