Whatever, I'm not too kean on immigrants demanding citizenship when it wasn't their ancestors who fought to make this place free. Maybe I just have to many Marine friends that beat that sort of thing into my head.
The trouble with that argument is that it overlooks the fact that those same immigrants can and will fight to
keep this country free.
America was founded by immigrants. It has developed on the backs of immigrants. Unless you’re native American, you are the product of immigrants.
If they come to this country wanting citizenship, why deny it? Legalize them, and they become taxpayers and contributors. What baffles me is that most if not all of them want to work – they don’t want to sponge off the rest of the country. They came to find work. And yet people want to deny them citizenship. Why?
Okay, so perhaps they don’t acclimate to the “American culture” they way some would like. Look at what happened with any ethnic group that has come to this country – for decades they retained their language and custom. They learned to speak enough English to get by, but they never abandoned their “roots”. But their kids did. Always happens – often to the regret of the parents or grandparents who mourn the fact that the kids or grandkids “don’t respect the old ways”. Go back to the turn of the century when Irish immigrants came to the country. There are Russian immigrants - the first wave - who tried to retain their language and customs. When the wave of Vietnamese hit America in the mid-'70s, that first generation was decried for not learnign the language or adapting the customs - but their kids and grandkids did. In every case -
every case - the resulting generations became "American-ized".
If they want to come and work, if they want to embrace the American ideals, if they want to contribute to this country, let ‘em. We’ll be the better for it.
I find much greater fault with those who are “generational welfare” families – families that have lived here for generations and who don’t contribute, but instead live off the fat of the land.
And mistake me if I'm, wrong, but English isn't actually our national language. It's the most spoken, but we have no 'official' language.
Correct – there is no “official” language of the U.S. Attempts to make English the "official" language have always failed miserably.
