When we have people speaking different languages, somewhere along the line, someone has to give. Just who is responsible for ensuring communication here? Are we supposed to bend over, hire translators or learn Spanish or should they be the ones to take it upon themselves to learn English since that is what most Americans speak? Seems like it always falls on the citizens here.
Other countries expect visitors or legal immigrants to learn their ways, everything from their language to their laws. Why shouldn't we do the same?
(My bold)
First, the immigrants are responsible to learn English - although the Native Peoples would probably have quibbled about that, if anyone had asked them. Even so - the US has an interest in "foreign" cultures & languages - "foreign" because the only "native" languages were those spoken by the Native Peoples. But trade for the US means that we need to have our own people who speak the languages & know the cultures.
Why do we - after 12 years of fighting in Iraq & Afghanistan - still not have enough Pushtu & Arabic & Farsi speakers? Because AG Ashcroft went berserk & rounded up young Islamic men by profile? Without notifying their familiies? Without access to counsel?
We deported everyone we could find who had an expired student or other visa, & tightened up access to student visas for everyone - not just young Islamic men. & so since 09/11, we're losing students from all over who would have preferred to have come to the US to study, & possibly to found companies here. Companies which are now going to India, the Little Tigers in the Pacific, elsewhere.
Why shouldn't we do the same - demand everyone learn English? We do, & everyone does - eventually. & because - with the exception of Black slaves - we are a nation of immigrants. & count your blessings - if not for net population growth by immigration, we'd be losing population steadily. Those immigrants work, pay taxes, rent apartments, buy homes, buy cars, buy groceries. They contribute to the tax & sales & labor bases, & often enough pay into Social Security, with no real hope of ever claiming that money back.
Ask the Feds how much nastier the national debt would be if immigrants weren't paying into the SS suspense account.