21 April 2006

You don't assimilate guests

Here is an article—Colin Nickerson (Boston Globe Staff), "A lesson in immigration:
Guest worker experiments transformed Europe," 19 April 2006—to which Laura Ingraham links on her website.  It outlines problems that Germany, France and the Netherlands are having with the “guest worker” programs.  No matter what proponents may say, such a program is not a good idea.

Look, assimilation is a must.  Through the process of assimilation immigrants’ descendants become, well, native.  They eventually, unless multiculturalists are successful, adopt the culture of their new country.  This also means adopting the cultural motif.  And here in the Undocumented States of America, that motif is Judeo-Christian.  But never mind that for now.

Many people understand the problem and the importance of assimilation.  But Robert J. Samuelson has a good article,  "Conspiracy Against Assimilation" which was in the Washington Post yesterday (20 April 2006).  This is what the first paragraph says:

It's all about assimilation -- or it should be. One of America's glories is that it has assimilated many waves of immigrants. Outsiders have become insiders. But it hasn't been easy. Every new group has struggled: Germans, Irish, Jews and Italians. All have encountered economic hardship, prejudice and discrimination. The story of U.S. immigration is often ugly. If today's wave of immigration does not end in assimilation, it will be a failure. By this standard, I think the major contending sides in the present bitter debate are leading us astray. Their proposals, if adopted, would frustrate assimilation.

I wish I could have written that article.  If only I had the time; but work must intrude upon pleasure, at least these days.

The bottom line is this.  We already have a guest worker program, indeed it’s more properly called “an uninvited guest” worker program.  But having any kind of guest worker program is just inconsistent with our national priciples.  Guests, as such, will be definition always be outsiders.  Guests never become part of the family, even when you tell them to make themselves at home.  For example, guests residing in your house when you die aren’t entitled to an inheritance.  And any guest who insisted on being included in the will would be seen as morally bankrupt, doubly so if he were an uninvited guest.  Right?

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like pies.

About Me

James Frank Solís
Former soldier (USA). Graduate-level educated. Married 26 years. Texas ex-patriate. Ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church in America.
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