IMMIGRANT ASSIMILATION
IMPOSSIBLE
.
I
agree with Teddy's 1907 sentiment and prefer assimilation in principle myself.
Nevertheless, pluralism has already reshaped our population over the last
one hundred eight years, turning our melting pot into a cultural stew.
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Teddy's idea is a couple of generations too late.
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Simply welcoming immigrants is not assimilation. If assimilation occurs, it does so as a generational process, learned through positive enculturating experiences. Like it or not, the USA is NOT the homogeneous country Teddy hoped it would be. Today we would have to strain out the dissimilar ingredients through the creation of
reservations, forced deportations, legalized exterminations, or by accommodation. The first three have been implemented in various ways and times all over the world. Accommodation is the last and only ethically practical approach left. It is our only humane and peace engendering way forward.
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National unification must rest on something other than a shared religious, ethnic, or social cultural identity. This prospect is repugnant to those already comfortably served by the idea that one of these actually forms the foundation of our culture. However, that belief is a fantasy. I personally do not like admitting it but the truest American cultural unifier is legal capitalism. That is why, it is unthinkable, in the USA, that our national identity could ever rest on our common humanity. It sounds too much like humanism or social communism. Nevertheless, it is possible that legal capitalism could incorporate our immigrants, as it has our masses, under one common social and cultural value system.
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Besides, this is the only one of today's most talked about issues directly addressed
by Jesus Christ. It has always been and will always be risky and
dangerous to help a Samaritian beaten and dying on the side of the road.
Heck, I know firsthand, there is a danger and a personal price, you
will pay, taking even someone you know into your home when they are in
distress. However, that is what we are called to do. It is never wrong to do the right thing.
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Face it
America, we are a pluralistic society and for that reason total assimilation of immigrants is not now or ever has been a reasonable goal. However, we can and we must make room for those of other cultural
who do not endanger or harm the rest of us. It seems reasonable, if we believe international coexistence is possible among nations of various cultures, that national unification is possible despite our cultural differences. Unfortunately, it will take generations of accommodation if there is ever to be assimilation.
