Economy and immigration (Erin)

My sister-in-law, an immigrant from El Salvador, does not speak English. She's been here over 30 years.

How many old Italian ladies were there in the old Italian sections of the cities in the East who never learned English? The Polish ladies?

Get over yourself, David. You're not in touch with the immigrant communities, either past or present. Too good for them I daresay, on the basis of your post. You just don't get it how difficult it can be, and how unnecessary it can seem, for an immigrant woman whose chief occupation is raising children to learn English.

Come with me to Amsterdam on the 18th. Meet all the English-speaking women who can't be bothered to or don't bother to learn Dutch, though they've lived there 20 years.

"Good riddance to them"? Hope you're ready to harvest our own crops and do all the work Americans consider below them.

No, I really do hope that. We need to do our own work, not import illegal immigrants to do it. But don't scorn these folks. We are their children.

Get over yourself, Friend. My great-grandparents came from Austria, and my great-grandfather made an effort to learn English, and to try to help other German-speaking immigrants.

My great-grandmother, on the other hand, never did learn English. And when my great-grandfather died young, of something he contracted working in a factory (and which would probably now be the subject of a class-action lawsuit), it was a real tragedy for her. She was completely dependent on her children (my grandfather and his siblings) and other people in her immigrant community. She was essentially helpless. She would have had a much easier time of things if she had been able to speak at least some English. To the end of his life my grandfather often spoke about how tragic his father's death was for his mother, and how isolated it left her. And the fact that she had never learned to speak English was a big part of it.

But that was then. Given all the mass-media today, a person would have to make a real effort in this country to isolate him- or herself from the sea of English that surrounds us. In 1912, when my great-grandfather died, there wasn't any radio, let alone television or sound movies. In addition, there are many more social-service agencies that make an effort to help immigrants learn English. I can understand the little old Italian or Polish ladies years ago, or women like my great-grandmother. They lived their whole lives in a little ethnic enclave. But never forget that they were effectively imprisoned in that enclave. Nowadays, I think people have to make a real effort not to pick up at least some English, or make a real effort to wall themselves up in such a hermetically-sealed ethnic cocoon that they can spend 15 years or more in this country without learning to speak passable English.

I have no sympathy either for the English-speaking women in Amsterdam who refuse to learn Dutch. I doubt that these are poor women living in an Anglophone ghetto; probably Americans and Brits who can't be bothered. (My father used to know people who worked in the international division of his company; he said that generally the husbands, who had jobs at the company branch in a foreign country, learned to speak the local language; their wives just associated with other American wives and never did.) I hope the Dutch aren't making their lives easier by catering to them in English. But then, given that most Dutch seem to speak better English than many Americans do, I suspect they find it simply easier to speak to them in English. That's sad.

Christmas is coming. Hand your sister-in-law a copy of Berlitz "Ingles sin maestro" or something similar and say "Feliz Navidad", or enroll her in some English classes. I'm sure she and her family will thank you. (Thirty years in this country without learning English?!? Good God! I mean, that must require real effort!)

As for whether I think I'm "too good" for them, well, I've reached a point in my life where I'm tired of making excuses for people who can't be bothered to help themselves, esp. when help is all around them. This isn't 1912 anymore; there are all sorts of tools available to help immigrants learn English. As a former non-English-speaking immigrant, Arnold Schwarzenegger, said to the Hispanic community in California a little while ago, it's time to turn off the Spanish television and learn English if you want things to be better for your kids.

I think this article is incorrect. Unless the economy in Mexico becomes better than ours in the US people will continue to come to this country illegally or legally in order to make a better life for themselves.

In Dominican Republic, which is a poor nation, there is the immigration problem of illegal Hatian immigrants crossing the border. In Puerto Rico there is the problem of illegal Dominican immigrants. If you are poor, you will go wherever you can to make a better life.

My opinion is that those immigrants that are here and chose to go back to their country cause they aren't being paid as much here as before have a nice little nest egg waiting for them in their country. Most immigrant's dream is to make it here, and then go back to their country.

I know this because my parents are struggling with a similar issue. Both of my parents are US citizens and own their home (no mortgage), my father (55 years old) has been unemployed since June '08 and my mother (51 years old) works for pittance at a fast food place. If they sold their home and took their savings they could return to the Dominican Republic and retire. They however would miss out on watching their grandchildren grow up, and would see their children 1-2 a year.