by Patrick J. Shanahan
01/16/04
Much has been made of President Bush's immigration initiative. The most charitable interpretation of it is that it seeks to make the best of an illegal immigrant situation and dynamic that cannot be wished away. The worst interpretation is that it explicitly rewards those who have deliberately violated the laws of the country that they ask to embrace them.
Rather than get bogged down in a review of this initiative - which in my opinion will never make it into law in its present form - I would like to take a step back and look at the more important underlying issue.
Immigration has always been with us, and we have always survived it - and thrived because of it. There is nothing inherently dangerous or threatening about immigration. It has some effects that can be negative in the short run. It can temporarily depress certain labor markets, it can stretch social services to their limits in certain places, it can cause social unrest as immigrant pockets bump up against more established groups. But these things are all fairly minor and manageable through intelligent immigration policy.
A far larger threat, as I see it, is the unwillingness to ask immigrants to adopt the culture of America. The reigning social orthodoxy of multiculturalism actually encourages immigrant groups to retain and celebrate their own cultures, rejecting or at the least segregating themselves from, the larger American culture.
The unquestioning acceptance of multiculturalism's premises is a tremendous threat to America. As long as the primary purpose of immigration is to allow people from other lands to become Americans, to adopt the culture of America, then immigration will be manageable. It is when we turn a blind eye to cultural balkanization that immigration becomes a problem.
Anyone who doubts this only need cast an eye toward Europe to spy the impact of multiculturalism run amok. Two decades of blind acceptance of millions of Muslim immigrants has created a tinderbox of competing cultures, and a situation in which many very intelligent observers wonder if there will be a "Europe" left in fifty years.
If we choose not to allow this to happen in the U.S., we must do something about the following:
1. Stop teaching multiculturalism in our schools. If we cannot start from the premise that the American Culture is superior to others, we don't deserve a country of our very own. If we cannot bring ourselves to teach our children that republican democracy, ordered liberty, and democratic capitalism are better than other forms of society and government, then we should just fold up shop and auction off the country. Which, come to think of it, is pretty much what the left is trying to do.
2. Focus immigrant education on the learning of English and a celebration of American history. Actually, this should be a focus for all education. It's scary enough when so many American born children are ignorant of our language and our history. But to bring in children from foreign lands, whose parents came to this country specifically because it offered something better, and then to immerse their children in fashionable anti-Americanism is unconscionable and perverse. We need to celebrate our country, our common culture (which does exist) and our European and Judeo-Christian heritage. It is just as important for a child of Muslim or Hindu heritage to understand the source of American values as it is for a WASP kid. It is not an insult to them to highlight what has made out country great. It would be an insult to hide this from them out of PC fears.
3. We need to make English the official language. ALL government commerce - including voting - must take place in English only. No English, no vote. No English, no driver's license. I would be more willing to adopt Spanish as our official language than have the Tower of Babel we are building today. Fer cryin' out loud, my ATM offers a menu in "Hmoob"! We cannot have a unified nation without a common culture, and we cannot have a common culture without a common language.
4. We need to - and this is actually addressed by the President's plan - distinguish between workers and immigrants. Every wave of immigration has had a component of temporary workers. These have been typically young males who came to America, worked hard, send money home, and then left. In the current immigration environment, this is enhanced by the proximity of Mexico. Most of the Mexicans who enter the country illegally so not do so in order to stay here. They do so in order to make money. Creating an orderly system of temporary worker visas (to which are attached no government benefits) would go a long way towards finding middle ground between the needs of American companies and a secure process. You want to come to America and make some cash without becoming an American? I can deal with that. Sign here, get a special ID car/Driver’s License, have a background check and a drug test, then keep your nose clean, and heck, you can commute from Tijuana if you want to.
5. The last piece of the puzzle is to lose the PC-driven kid gloves we wear in relation to Mexico. Mexico has been a corrupt, tyrannical, oligarchic semi-democracy which has kept its own people underdeveloped for a century, forcing them to turn to the north to find prosperity. Why we feel obliged to pussyfoot around with this country is beyond me. Actually, that’s not true. We lack the cultural self-confidence to do anything concrete. Vicente Fox is in many ways an improvement on his predecessors, but we need to suck it up and lean on him heavily to make the structural changes that will make it more attractive for Mexicans to stay home than to cross the border.
That's my take. It's really very simple. People come to America because they perceive it to be better than where they are coming from - economically, politically or culturally. For those who want economic gain only - let's create a sane mechanism for letting that happen. For those who seek political or cultural synthesis - to become Americans - let's welcome them, as long as they are willing to adopt our language, culture, and political system.
As long as they are willing to become Americans.