mikhail

When people talk about immigration in America it seems they are basically talking about Mexicans.Is this actually part of the problem? that all the immigrants are coming from the same culture they come over hang out with other mexicans and are seperate from everyone else.

In the Uk lately we have had alot of eastern europeans and i think to alot of people they have been pleasently surprised they come down to the pubs they have really put the effort in learning english and you can have a laugh with them.

The problem i think America has is mexicans come over the border they meet up with other mexicans then live seperately from everyone else.

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Hatuey

...You ever been to an American city? It wouldn't be hard to get around without speaking Spanish(think of it as the UKs southeast Asian population(mainly Indians) as most places humans need to go to in America usually have legal citizens who speak Spanish anyways. The problem comes in when non-Spanish speaking American citizens are "forced" to speak a language they don't have a control over in their own country. I however don't oppose people conducting business in the language they please. Which is what many rabid of the anti-illegals support.This violates some of the most basic rights of privately owned businesses. If you don't understand what I mean here it is in simpler terms.

Business owner wants to conduct business in Spanish. No problem there.

Business owner wants to conduct business in English. No problem there either.

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1069

Well, I live in a border state, and everybody's pretty well mixed up here; I mean, it's not like Mexican immigrants are living off by themselves in some isolated Spanish-speaking enclave.
In- to put it tactfully- lower income neighborhoods, like mine, there is a predominance of people of Mexican ancestry, both those who were born here and those who are immigrants (both legal and illegal), and a minority of whites, and an even smaller minority of blacks. Everybody gets by. We're all trying to raise families here. I don't see a lot of voluntary racial segregation, except for one nearby neighborhood that seems entirely comprised of black people; but I don't think they've segregated themselves by choice. Rather, I think it was some misguided attempt by the housing authority to avert racial tensions by sort of sticking all the black people together in a clump. But it's not like they stay there. They come to my complex to swim in the pool (the best pool in the neighborhood). And the kids from everywhere in a two-square-mile radius go to their neighborhood to use the rec center, which is smack dab in the middle of this all-black enclave. And of course kids of all races go to school together, and hang out after school together, and ride bikes all over hell together.
Anyway... no. Here, at least, Mexican immigrants don't stay to themselves (despite what sometimes seems to me to be systematic efforts to make them do so).
And neither I nor my kids have experienced any overt racism, nor have I witnessed overt racism against either blacks or hispanics (although that's certainly not to say it doesn't happen). Just because I haven't personally witnessed it doesn't mean it's not happening.

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Bodhisattva

This is essentially the problem with most, if not al, of the immigrant populations that come to America. Most immigrant populations have done this...whether it is the Poles in Chicago, the Italians in Brooklyn, The Asians in San Fran, the Vietnamese in Garden Grove, or any of the hundreds of other cities that have "little Saigons" "little Italy's" "China Towns" ETC.

With respect to 1069, in CA, the Mexicans are certainly, "are living off by themselves in some isolated Spanish-speaking enclave". They stick to themselves in schools as well.

To be fair...so do the blacks and the Asians.

Not only do the Mexicans live off by themselves, they send an estimated 15 billion of their income back to Mexico...taking it out of the US economy.

Does this make America weak or strong...that is the issue to me.

IT makes America stronger by having such diversity as long as everybody is nice to eachother and they respect culture and learn from one another...

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1069

Not here. I scarcely have a picture of my kids growing up that doesn't have other, brown faces in the picture.
I don't think we have the racial tension type problems here that other cities of comparable size have. This is a very laid-back city, very mellow, with an exceptionally low violent crime rate per capita (and no doubt a correllating exceptionally high rate of pot smokers).
It's still a hippie city in a lot of ways, a throwback to the 70s.

It seems to me that so much of what is attributed to race is actually more about social class, about- to put it bluntly- socioeconomic status, than it is about skin color or nationality or even language.

Bodhisattva

I agree, but with old school white anglo saxon protestants...
The issue is very much race here in Orange County.

In LA at large... the issue is fairly racist...
In CA at large... the issue is rairly racist...

Mexicans in the U.S.A: Mexican-American / Tex-Mex Cousine; by Etienne MARTINEZ

Hell: Mexicans: We are America!

The Mexican invasion of the United States of America

WorldNetDaily: Is Mexico reconquering U.S. southwest?

TierraNatal: Connecting Mexicans In North America

I simply noted that in SoCal...the area with the highest level of illegal Mexican immigrants... that the trends are that they withdras...speak spanish... send money home to mexico... are racist towards gringos... are sexists towards latinas and any woman for that matter... and many many other things that are not in the best interest of a stable society like the USA.

I have MUCH experience in this matter and I have met literally THOUSANDS of mexicans in varying stages of immigration and education. But...that is just me.

UtahBill

Your last 2 sentences are about the business owners. What about customers?
Last week I stood in line at a WalMart behind a Mexican who spoke essentially no english, and it took at least 5 minutes for the cashier to deal with him, as she spoke no Spanish. He had just had a key made, and wanted it made for free, or so it seemed, because a second one he had in his hand "no work", and she assumed it had been done there, but when she looked closer at it, the key bore no resemblance to the one she had made a copy of. Not sure what was going on, but she kept saying, "I have to charge you for the key". I suggested to her that she use the word pay instead of charge, but that didn't help.
So finally, I said to him, "dinero" and pointed to the cashier. He paid and left.
Call me a racist if you like, but the least the "immigrants" should do before coming here is learn at least conversational English, and/or carry a Spanish to English dictionary with them. I have seem some of them bring their children along to translate. If their kids have been here long enough to learn English, surely the parents could have learned it by now?
If I wanted to hire one of the Mexicans standing at the Home Depot looking for work, I would engage them in conversation at least long enough to make sure that we can communicate. If he can't understand what I want him to do, it will likely get done wrong.
OTOH, sometimes that happens when I try to get English speaking Americans to understand what I want. I am still upset with some of the work done on the house we just had built....

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1069

Actually, cashiers should probably learn at least conversational spanish (and then be paid more).
Then businesses in which the employees don't know a syllable of spanish could lose all their spanish-speaking customers to the store or restaurant across the road, where the employees are at least minimally bilingual.
Here in Texas, there are so many Spanish-speaking people that I think everybody knows at least some minimal amount of spanish. And most mexican immigrants know some minimal amount of English. Sometimes compromise is necessary in the business world, if you want somebody's patronage.
If you don't want their patronage, the quickest and easiest way to lose it is to refuse to make even a token effort to accommodate them. Then they'll go away and take their business elsewhere, and everybody can be happy.

UtahBill

Have you ever gone into a fast food place and had to deal with someone who speaks minimal english? You get to deal with that person, and another who translates. I ordered a hamburger with mustard and tomatos only, and got a sandwich with buns, mustard, and tomatos....no meat. This was in Arizona, Phoenix area.
The paying customer should not have to deal with cashiers who don't speak english, and vice versa, unless the customer is in some country other than their own.

1069

Well, Bill, if we want cashiers who are at least minimally fluent in any language, we might have to start paying them more than minimum wage, which, as far as I know, is still $5.15 an hour.
Either that, or we might have to start allowing ten-year-olds to work.
Because it's kind of unreasonable to expect anyone over the age of ten to stand in front of a cash register and deal with the public eight hours a day, for a take-home pay of about thirty dollars a day.
Who can afford to waste time that way? You'd make more money in an hour of standing on the shoulder of the highway holding a sign.