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Hispanics/undocumented in NWA schools


diplodocus

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I think non-citizen, non-English speaking students here illegally are a social condition (or the result of one), undoubtedly impacting the local schools.

The unfortunate reality is that NWA's hispanic growth has coincided with the largest wave of illegal immigration in U.S. history, so in most NWAers' minds, "hispanic" and "undocumented" are interchangeable terms.

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Sadly enough, because the Hispanic immigrants have not assimilated into the community at this point they are having a negative effect on the public school systems where they are a large presence. Educators are spending a large amount of time on administrative tasks dealing with them instead of actually teaching the curriculum that the schools have. I had a neighbor who is an elementary school teacher in a school with a largely Hispanic student body tell me a large part of her day is spent trying to overcome the language difference and that the student body as a whole suffers for it.

Studies have shown that the first generation of immigrants won't assimilate. The second will to a point and the 3rd will be completely assimilated: at least that is what I've read. In the meantime, there will be Hispanic enclaves in NWA and countrywide that will be a source of friction. The graffiti in Springdale & Rogers alone is becoming a flash point. I don't think the individuals or those responsible for those individuals realize how negative that reflects on them. The fact that when you read the police reports in the newspaper and a large number have Hispanic surnames also reflects badly on that group. How much is factual and how much is appearance doesn't matter in public opinion.

I don't think encouraging English as a second language is beneficial to assimilating non-Englishing speaking groups into the mainstream cultural or economic communities. It's not a racial bias but a common sense approach to economic growth and social harmony. I've read differing views but they didn't make me change my mind. A common language is essential to good communication. Am I wrong?

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Yes the later generations will assimilate. Unless everyone else's ancestors were English they went through the same process. It wasn't that long ago that German was widely spoken through very large areas of the Midwest.

And on Mike's note, although I don't agree with the sentiment it certainly wouldn't hurt for Americans to learn another language. We can't just assume English will always be the main language for business and communication around the world.

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Just saying that fluency with Spanish will get you farther than fluency with English. All businesses need a translator regardless of that persons skills other than fluency with Spanish. So, mastering the Spanish language will get you pretty much any job along with job security, leverage for promotions, and a killer resume. That is until someone with both the language AND the skills comes along.
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I think you're trying to say that bilingualism provides more opportunities than are available for an equally educated monolingual person.

Thats somewhat true, I suppose, although primarily for "customer level" careers like bank tellers, or nurses.

Bilingualism rarely benefits architects, engineers, or surgeons directly, unless they intend to conduct business internationally or move overseas.

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Bottom line is that English is a universal language and is the official language of 50+ countries all over the world, with over 600 million people speaking English as a second language. Spanish is the official language in half as many countries, all but one being isolated to Central and South America, with nearly 100 million people speaking Spanish as a second language.
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What I was saying is that in the US it's better to be English language impaired than Spanish language impaired, so immigrants taking English as a secondary language are going to continue to drive up the cost of education and since healthcare professionals need to pay more to have translators, English language impared (ELI) people are driving up the cost of healthcare in the US. This is a problem that cannot be easily rectified without taking actions that may come across as blatantly racist. That's no excuse for inaction. In this regard anti-racism can be more of a hinderance to society than pro-racism.
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If we're going to bash immigrants why don't we also bash low income families in general. How many of these low income families abuse food stamps and other services set up to help them? Services that the rest of the people have to pay for. I won't say there isn't problems, but I really don't think you can make Hispanics scapegoats for all our problems. Anytime the economy declines immigrants always take the blame. I just don't think it's a clearcut issue with an easy simple solution. I do think the government should do more to restrict entrance into the country. But at the same time I also think the government needs to make it's easier for many of these immigrants to become citizens. If we suddenly could kick out all the Hispanic immigrants someone is going to have to do those jobs they were doing. I doubt many people will do them as cheaply either. So that extra cost will be passed down to the consumer. That and then we'd also see more jobs shifted out of the country because some companies could no longer feasibly do it here in the country. There are problems with the way things are currently but there's also going to be different problems. Kicking immigrants out isn't going to be a magic pill that solves all our problems.
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You make good points. I do know there are certainly problems but I hate when people seem to make it more of a racial issue. But either way I think there are numerous problems with the way things are going in our country that aren't related to the immigration issue. I don't mean that as I am bashing the US. I'm also not going to compare us to the fall of Rome. But it does seem like we are on the downslope. I don't know that anything huge will happen in out lifetimes but it does make me wonder more about where the country is going in the future.

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You make good points. I do know there are certainly problems but I hate when people seem to make it more of a racial issue. But either way I think there are numerous problems with the way things are going in our country that aren't related to the immigration issue. I don't mean that as I am bashing the US. I'm also not going to compare us to the fall of Rome. But it does seem like we are on the downslope. I don't know that anything huge will happen in out lifetimes but it does make me wonder more about where the country is going in the future.
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For now. Another language could come along and take it's place at some point. English is a confusing language because it's mixed other aspects of other languages. So that rules always have exceptions and so on. The US isn't always going to be the top power in the world and English may not stay the international language either.
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"Because English is so widely spoken, it has often been referred to as a "global language", the lingua franca of the modern era. While English is not an official language in many countries, it is currently the language most often taught as a second language around the world. Some linguists believe that it is no longer the exclusive cultural sign of "native English speakers", but is rather a language that is absorbing aspects of cultures worldwide as it continues to grow. It is, by international treaty, the official language for aerial and maritime communications, as well as one of the official languages of the European Union, the United Nations, and most international athletic organisations, including the International Olympic Committee.

Books, magazines, and newspapers written in English are available in many countries around the world. English is also the most commonly used language in the sciences. In 1997, the Science Citation Index reported that 95% of its articles were written in English, even though only half of them came from authors in English-speaking countries."

- English Language from Wikipedia.com

That will never happen. If anything Mandarin may become the second universal language since nearly every country in the world has major trade dealings with China, but even Mandarin would never replace English as the "Global Language."

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If we're going to bash immigrants why don't we also bash low income families in general. How many of these low income families abuse food stamps and other services set up to help them? Services that the rest of the people have to pay for. I won't say there isn't problems, but I really don't think you can make Hispanics scapegoats for all our problems. Anytime the economy declines immigrants always take the blame. I just don't think it's a clearcut issue with an easy simple solution. I do think the government should do more to restrict entrance into the country. But at the same time I also think the government needs to make it's easier for many of these immigrants to become citizens. If we suddenly could kick out all the Hispanic immigrants someone is going to have to do those jobs they were doing. I doubt many people will do them as cheaply either. So that extra cost will be passed down to the consumer. That and then we'd also see more jobs shifted out of the country because some companies could no longer feasibly do it here in the country. There are problems with the way things are currently but there's also going to be different problems. Kicking immigrants out isn't going to be a magic pill that solves all our problems.
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Yeah but English wasn't always the 'global' language. I think you could argue that didn't happen till the 20th century. Maybe even after WWII. Before that French and German were more widely spoken as the 'global' language. I don't think we can just assume that English will always be the global language.
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Yeah but English wasn't always the 'global' language. I think you could argue that didn't happen till the 20th century. Maybe even after WWII. Before that French and German were more widely spoken as the 'global' language. I don't think we can just assume that English will always be the global language.
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I've never thought of the French and Germans as really making much of a run for the "global language". I think the English and Spanish made it so by establishing far flung empires in the 17th and 18th centuries. I think that in the mid-to-late 1800s English started becoming the international language mostly because most of the former Spanish colonies were impoverished while former British colonies like the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa were relatively modern and industrialized. The Germans never really had much of an empire and the French had some influence but it was lost by the early 1800s when most of their empire was lost to other countires, including their American colonies being ceded to the U.S. and the U.K.

English has been the official language of the scientific community since the late 1800s.

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