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Is it racist to ask for immigrants to speak English?

Is it racist to ask immigrants to speak English?

  • Total voters
    118
ChrisL said:
Boo Radley said:
Are you aware of why this is? I'm not going to argue that a lot of immigrants start businesses, but that still does not mean that we shouldn't insist that immigrants know the main language used in the country.



Okay, for one thing, this is not so easy to prove, considering the fact that they are undocumented. This is only a guesstimate, and I highly doubt that it is accurate, considering the fact that the only thing they are going on is those who DO pay taxes and there is no way to know for sure how many do not. Another thing is that you cannot tell me that there are not MANY illegal immigrants who receive benefits on behalf of their US-born children.
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Yes, I have a good idea why the top one is true. And when a person says, "you can't tell me" they are often showing a closed mine. I'm open the best evidence. Like I said, a search shows many sites saying exactly the same thins I posted.
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ttwtt78640 said:
Can you please repeat that post in Chinese, Greek and Spanish for those immigrants that lack English skills. :)
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Most f them know how to work the language function. ;)
 
Say we never have an official language, and then we have all of these non-English speakers, all speaking their native languages, are we to deny them drivers licenses? Because, I mean, they can't read road signs, so they would totally be a hazard on the roads. Or are we supposed to spend buku bucks on printing everything in God knows how many different languages?
 
Boo Radley said:
ChrisL said:
Yes, I have a good idea why the top one is true. And when a person says, "you can't tell me" they are often showing a closed mine. I'm open the best evidence. Like I said, a search shows many sites saying exactly the same thins I posted.
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The problem is, there is no definitive way to know. These are "estimates" at best.
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It isn’t necessarily racist but what business is it of mine what language they are speaking in public? Who the hell would walk up to some people having a conversation in Spanish and ask them to speak English? It isn’t racist, but it would certainly be a$$holeish.

Now, if someone walks up to ME in public and starts speaking in a language I don’t understand then I will ask if they speak English. But that is just so we can better communicate. But I am also not insulted if they can’t speak English, just as long as they don’t get frustrated with me when I can’t speak their language.

I have lived and worked in several non-English speaking countries. I picked up Spanish and some of the European and SE Asian languages fairly easily. So when in Mexico, Germany or Cambodia I always try to speak their language, and they do appreciate it. However, when I lived in Libya, no matter how much I studied, I just could not get a handle on Arabic. I can read it and write it but verbally I am lost. So I would have to resort to English. They were never offended, though for many years the teaching of English was outlawed there so the vast majority of the generation who grew up during that time period don’t speak a lick of English. And when we did fail to communicate I accepted the responsibility for the failure of communication because I am the one who came to an Arabic speaking country without being able to speak Arabic. But they also had the good grace not to get angry with me for it. They probably just felt sorry for me.
 
Sarcogito said:
It isn’t necessarily racist but what business is it of mine what language they are speaking in public? Who the hell would walk up to some people having a conversation in Spanish and ask them to speak English? It isn’t racist, but it would certainly be a$$holeish.

Now, if someone walks up to ME in public and starts speaking in a language I don’t understand then I will ask if they speak English. But that is just so we can better communicate. But I am also not insulted if they can’t speak English, just as long as they don’t get frustrated with me when I can’t speak their language.

I have lived and worked in several non-English speaking countries. I picked up Spanish and some of the European and SE Asian languages fairly easily. So when in Mexico, Germany or Cambodia I always try to speak their language, and they do appreciate it. However, when I lived in Libya, no matter how much I studied, I just could not get a handle on Arabic. I can read it and write it but verbally I am lost. So I would have to resort to English. They were never offended, though for many years the teaching of English was outlawed there so the vast majority of the generation who grew up during that time period don’t speak a lick of English. And when we did fail to communicate I accepted the responsibility for the failure of communication because I am the one who came to an Arabic speaking country without being able to speak Arabic. But they also had the good grace not to get angry with me for it. They probably just felt sorry for me.
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Nobody says they cannot speak their native language. They should know English for MANY different reasons, one of which stated in my post above.
 
Boo Radley said:
Most f them know how to work the language function. ;)
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Really? Most of them? I tried to get one to move his truck at Home Depot today, but he lacked that "language function" said something about "no habla" and walked off. :)
 
ChrisL said:
Nobody says they cannot speak their native language. They should know English for MANY different reasons, one of which stated in my post above.
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They certainly make their own life more inconvenient for not speaking English but that is on them.

And you do have to be able to read road signs to get a driver’s license. It is on the test. They don’t show one picture with STOP on it and another with ALTO. If they can’t pass the test then no driver’s license.
 
ChrisL said:
Explain what you mean by a "more liberal immigration policy" please.
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More work visas particularly unskilled/semi-skilled based upon market needs and no prejudice in getting them if you have been here illegally. Fine them if you want for past violation. You can be here and travel back and forth related to your work but if you are not working, you go home. Children born of those workers in the US not eligible for US citizenship. Employers in fields hiring these unskilled workers would have to demonstrate a need to have them unless it were a field where it were a more obvious need like agriculture. Current law takes care of the wage issue as I think they require the prevailing wage to be the minimum wage, which is sometimes above the actual minimum wage, thereby taking the cheap labor incentive off low wage jobs.
 
ChrisL said:
Say we never have an official language, and then we have all of these non-English speakers, all speaking their native languages, are we to deny them drivers licenses? Because, I mean, they can't read road signs, so they would totally be a hazard on the roads. Or are we supposed to spend buku bucks on printing everything in God knows how many different languages?
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Safety signs go by shape. No reading required. We already know they get around quite fine. And business usually prints most of the things they read, and government has no role in governing that. We have an English only law here. Cost us millions and did nothing.
 
ttwtt78640 said:
Really? Most of them? I tried to get one to move his truck at Home Depot today, but he lacked that "language function" said something about "no habla" and walked off. :)
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Yet you were still going to hire him, and we have a lot evidence that they do get hired.
 
Sarcogito said:
They certainly make their own life more inconvenient for not speaking English but that is on them.

And you do have to be able to read road signs to get a driver’s license. It is on the test. They don’t show one picture with STOP on it and another with ALTO. If they can’t pass the test then no driver’s license.
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No drivers license (in many communities) AND being unable to speak English are obstacles to success. In one of my earlier posts, I cited the law that immigrants (legal ones) are supposed to have at least a basic knowledge of how to read, write and speak English, so that would tell me that most of the problems lie with illegal immigrants, and that is a huge complicated issue but one that has to be tackled because we can't just keep accommodating everyone.
 
Boo Radley said:
Yet you were still going to hire him, and we have a lot evidence that they do get hired.
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Of course they get hired, why else would they come here? Who else will work hard for $8/hour, live six to a room and think that they are rich enough to send half of their pay home?
 
LoopyPaladin said:
I was referring to his comment. His point of view is what I was trying to say when I say "racist".
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How does his comment relate to the OP question (you ARE the original poster)? So? People from the same ethnic groups sometimes speak different languages? So how does that relate to the OP question?
 
ChrisL said:
How does his comment relate to the OP question (you ARE the original poster)? So? People from the same ethnic groups sometimes speak different languages? So how does that relate to the OP question?
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It relates because there's been some argument about my wording when I used the word "racist". I understand that there are people of the same race that immigrate to Canada and the Us that speak different languages, and so I was just clarifying for anyone who saw that post that that's what I meant when I said racist.
 
Fisher said:
More work visas particularly unskilled/semi-skilled based upon market needs and no prejudice in getting them if you have been here illegally. Fine them if you want for past violation. You can be here and travel back and forth related to your work but if you are not working, you go home. Children born of those workers in the US not eligible for US citizenship. Employers in fields hiring these unskilled workers would have to demonstrate a need to have them unless it were a field where it were a more obvious need like agriculture. Current law takes care of the wage issue as I think they require the prevailing wage to be the minimum wage, which is sometimes above the actual minimum wage, thereby taking the cheap labor incentive off low wage jobs.
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I agree with some of the points in your post, but we DON'T have an endless supply of jobs, and you HAVE to crack down hard on illegal immigration or else it will never stop. Some employers will actually seek them out just because they save on paying taxes themselves, and they get to skeeve them out of a living wage.

I wonder if other countries have the problems with illegal immigration that we have?
 
ttwtt78640 said:
Of course they get hired, why else would they come here? Who else will work hard for $8/hour, live six to a room and think that they are rich enough to send half of their pay home?
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Exactly, a lot of times illegal immigrants come here for jobs and send the money back home to their families because the families do not accompany them, so they are NOT really contributing to the economy too much under those circumstances either.
 
ttwtt78640 said:
Of course they get hired, why else would they come here? Who else will work hard for $8/hour, live six to a room and think that they are rich enough to send half of their pay home?
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Lazy bastards.

And this why we keep them coming.
 
LoopyPaladin said:
It relates because there's been some argument about my wording when I used the word "racist". I understand that there are people of the same race that immigrate to Canada and the Us that speak different languages, and so I was just clarifying for anyone who saw that post that that's what I meant when I said racist.
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Oh, I see now. :)
 
ChrisL said:
I agree with some of the points in your post, but we DON'T have an endless supply of jobs, and you HAVE to crack down hard on illegal immigration or else it will never stop. Some employers will actually seek them out just because they save on paying taxes themselves, and they get to skeeve them out of a living wage.

I wonder if other countries have the problems with illegal immigration that we have?
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Yes, ironically Mexico does.
 
ChrisL said:
Exactly, a lot of times illegal immigrants come here for jobs and send the money back home to their families because the families do not accompany them, so they are NOT really contributing to the economy too much under those circumstances either.
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Does not follow. They still pay taxes and contribute. And a good number stay.
 
Boo Radley said:
Lazy bastards.

And this why we keep them coming.
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Lol! Thing is, you don't know who is productive and who isn't when you have no qualifications and its just a free for all.
 
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