Eeeeeeek! Those people come over to our country and don't assimilate! They just form their own ethnic enclaves in ghettos, where they don't bother to learn the language; their children still speak the mother country's language! :-o
An important, patriotic American scientist, publisher, and statesman warns,
"...Few of their children in the country learn English... Advertisements intended to be general are now printed in Spanish and English; the signs in our streets have inscriptions in both languages, and in some places only Spanish: They begin of late to make all their bonds and other legal writings in their own language, which (though I think it ought not to be) are allowed good in our courts, where the Hispanic business so increases that there is continual need of interpreters; and I suppose in a few years they will be also necessary in the Assembly, to tell one half of our legislators what the other half say; In short unless the stream of their importation could be turned from this to other countries, as you very judiciously propose, they will soon so out number us, that all the advantages we have will not in my opinion be able to preserve our language, and even our government will become precarious. . . . Yet I am not for refusing entirely to admit them into our country: all that seems to be necessary is, to distribute them more equally, mix them with the English-speakers, establish English-only schools..."
OK, this was actually written by Benjamin Franklin in his letter to Peter Collinson, May 9, 1753. He wasn't talking about Spanish-speakers but about Germans. Every time he said "German" or "Dutch," I replaced it with "Spanish" or "Hispanic." And when he said "our colonies," I replaced those two words with "our country." And I replaced "the English" with "English-speakers" or "English-only."
I'm not the first person to point out that Franklin's laments about German immigrants in his own time parallel the grievances we hear about immigrants from Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries today. Jeff Jacoby has mentioned this.
So . . . aren't you worried about all those Germans coming into the USA and not assimilating?!!!!! :-o
