Aid Immigrants’ Assimilation

I read with interest Ronald Brownstein’s Aug. 6 column on immigration. Having taught English as a second language to newcomers for five years in Sacramento, I appreciated his focus on sufficient funding for such classes, which are chronically underfunded. I loved the work, but when I married and became a father, teaching ESL part-time with no benefits, which is the norm for the field, prompted me to leave ESL and finish my doctorate in Spanish so I could teach at the college level. Full-time jobs in ESL with benefits are almost unheard of. It’s true that the open, “revolving door” attendance policy in adult ESL tremendously limits the effectiveness of the English instruction. Students learn enough English to get by but not enough to participate in a democracy. Any reform, any increase in funding, must require regular attendance if English learning is to be maximized.

On immigrants and welfare, Brownstein is less convincing. We should not demonize newcomers (or anyone else) but neither should we exaggerate their virtue: They are as prone to human frailty as you or I, and welfare abuse among them is more common than the idealistic Brownstein supposes. He is correct, however, about the need to help newcomers assimilate once they’ve regularized their status.

William James

Sacramento

Re “INS Penalty System Falls Down on Job,” Aug. 6: The illegal immigration of Mexicans to the United States is, I believe, more of a Mexican problem. This indicates that Mexico neglects the needs of its people. While American leaders are busy debating whether illegal Mexican immigrants should be legalized and given welfare, the Mexican government, plagued by corruption and mismanagement, continues to fail to live up to the social, economic and political expectations of the citizenry.

Every person hopes for a better existence, at home or abroad. If Mexicans can fulfill their dreams in Mexico, illegal migration will not cross their minds. Legalization and other INS measures are only temporary solutions. These will not completely stop illegal immigration and can probably encourage more Mexicans to cross the U.S. border. Instead of letting the U.S. shoulder migration’s repercussions, the Mexican government should introduce massive reforms to restructure its economy and attain political stability to discourage its citizens from leaving.

Anna Francesca Limbo

Department of Political Science

University of the Philippines

Immigration reform to most Americans means some real reductions in legal immigration levels, a tightening up of illegal immigration and an end to putting other nations’ interests ahead of our own on these issues. The immigration reforms that Congress and the president talk about are just a continuation of the same kind of runaway migration into this country that we’ve all had enough of. Washington just doesn’t get it.

Tom Quaney

Highland