Writes Jeff Jacoby in the Boston Globe:
…the burning immigration problem of our time isn’t that too many people are breaking the rules to get in. It is what they are finding when they get here.
Instead of a national commitment to assimilation, a cynical multiculturalism sends the message that our culture is no better than any other, so there is no particular reason to embrace the American experience. ”Bilingual” education and foreign-language ballots accelerate the loss of a common English tongue, making it easier than ever for newcomers to cluster in linguistic ghettoes. Identity politics erodes the national identity, encouraging immigrants to see themselves first and foremost as members of racial or ethnic groups, and only secondarily as individuals and Americans.
From the day he got off the boat from Europe, my father lived up to the code that expected immigrants to go to work, learn the language, obey the laws, and become an American. My immigrant son, I hope, will live up to it too. The melting pot, it used to be called, before political correctness intervened. That political correctness is what has caused the present crisis. The crisis won’t be solved by blaming the immigrants.
For more on multiculturalism, read Diversity and Multiculturalism: The New Racism and Multiculturalism’s War on Education. For more on immigration read The Moral and Practical Case for Open Immigration.