|
|
| STRANGERS AMONG US?
How Latinos are transforming America? May 8, 1998 |
|---|
NewsHour Backgrounders
April 29, 1998
David Gergen speaks with Roberto Suro about Latino immigration.
February 18, 1997
Essayist Richard Rodriguez explores the shades of brown in America.
August 11, 1997
A tribute to the late Octavio Paz, Mexico's acclaimed poet.
February 16, 1998
How has the influx of Latino immigrants affected one Arkansas town?
December 2, 1997
A report on a camp that teaches youths how to fight bigotry.
October 23, 1996
Latinos protest against anti-immigrant sentiments in America.
Browse the NewsHour's coverage of race relations.
After years of studying immigration, Washington Post reporter Roberto Suro has concluded that Latinos "will keep coming" to America. And because of this, both America and its Latino population are going to have to change.
This is the challenge Suro presents in his new book, "Strangers Among Us: How Latino Immigration is Transforming America." "That's the way we've grown as a country," said Suro in an interview on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. "It's often painful. But on the other side of it, this country's always emerged stronger and with a better sense of self."
In as little as six years from now, Latinos, or Hispanics, will surpass African Americans to become the largest minority in the United States. According to Suro, these demographic changes will force America to reassess its immigration laws and attitudes towards language, race and poverty.
These statistics will also require Latinos to change as well, particularly in their attitudes towards immigration and language. According to Suro, "it is in their self-interest to turn illegals away from their communities" and should view "English language training as a means of securing a successful future in a new land."
What do you think are the challenges and opportunities facing Latino communities across the U.S.? How do you see Latino immigration transforming America? Is bilingual education a good response to the growing Latino population? How can America improve its immigration laws?
Roberto Suro will now answer your questions...
Shirley from New York, NY asks:
As a Chinese immigrant, we had to learn English quickly and work within the existing American culture, i.e. no ESL available when I was growing up. Why is it that the American population must change to accommodate this group when other immigrant groups were not given the special attention that Latinos need in order to survive in the United States?
Roberto Suro responds:
Bilingual education is associated with Spanish-speaking immigrants today because they comprise by far the largest linguistic group now coming to the United States, but the idea of native language education has much older and broader roots. At the turn of the century about four percent of the nation's elementary school population, more than 600,000 children, received all or part of their education in German. The 1974 Supreme Court ruling that mandated help for school children with limited mastery of English, Lau v. Nichols, came in a lawsuit brought on behalf of an Asian-American student in San Francisco. Bilingual education withered in the wave of nativism that swept the country during World War I and was only revived again in the 1960s. The writer, I assume, was educated during that era in-between when native language education had virtually disappeared.
In recent years bilingual education has become a political quagmire for a variety of reasons including confusion about its purposes and the perception that it serves as an ethnic patronage program. In "Strangers Among Us," I examine the issue of language in some detail. The bottom line for me is that immigrants and ethnic advocates should accept the reality that the goal of a public school education is to prepare students for life in an English-speaking nation. Meanwhile, Americans must understand that they have a major self-interest in ensuring that new immigrants and their children have the best possible opportunity to get the education they need to become productive workers, responsible parents and engaged citizens. That may mean that newly arrived children, especially those who come in their teens, will need some schooling in their native language as a transitional measure.
Back to the top....
Jim Campion of Doylestown, PA asks:
I think bilingual Spanish-English education in the USA should be bi-directional as well. At the least, a minimum of Spanish language and pan-American civics should be required in U.S. curricula. We in the USA need to communicate better with our Latino neighbors both within and across our borders, and ultimately develop an American Economic Community similar to the European Economic Community. Broader economic development across Central and South America is the obvious answer to ameliorating the influx of excess economic refugees into the USA. Your comments, please.
Roberto Suro responds:
The best bilingual programs I've seen set out to accomplish what you describe. At Coral Way Elementary School in Miami, for example, all children, regardless of their linguistic origins, emerge fully fluent in both English and Spanish and with a very well-rounded education in world cultures. Exemplary schools, like Coral Way, show that bilingual education can succeed if there are dedicated and talented teachers working in a supportive environment. Unfortunately that is a big "if." Worse yet the same "if" applies to mathematics, science, basic writing skills in English and other subjects that our school children fail to absorb all too often.
Back to the top....
Paul L. Quaglia from Chiang Mai, Thailand asks:
I agree with Mr. Suro's base line assumption that Latinos will soon comprise our largest minority group. I wonder however, if Mr. Suro has allowed for the possibility of intermarriage, in addition to studying English, as another means of integrating into U.S. society. I know that many recent immigrants from the Asian community have begun to marry those from families who have been here for generations. Do you see intermarriage as likely among the Latino immigrant community?
Roberto Suro responds:
Intermarriage is most certainly a very important vehicle for integration during a time of immigration. Indeed intermarriage of all sorts is on the rise as our society becomes more tolerant and more mobile. The writer is on the mark in asserting that Asians appear to be intermarrying at high rates with native-born Americans, although it involves both Asian-Americans and non-Asians.
Members of small national or ethnic groups are more likely to intermarry outside their group, in the absence of a strong cultural prohibition, at least partially because it is so more likely that they will encounter potential mates of a heritage other than their own. (If there is only one red-headed male and one red-headed female at a dance attended by 200 people, the odds are against them pairing-up.) Latinos by contrast as so numerous and often live in such dense concentrations that marriage outside the group is not so prevalent at least so far. There is plenty of intermarriage among Latino immigrants of different nationalities and between new arrivals and Latinos of longer tenure here. This is a difficult process to track, but over the course of a generation or two it will certainly be a key factor in the process of integration.
Back to the top....
Linda Johansen of Portland, OR asks:
One point I'm not hearing is "why" they are all coming... Yes, I understand there's a "better" life here... but I thought that NAFTA was supposed to "level" that playing field and bring a better life to Mexico.
Roberto Suro responds:
In "Strangers Among Us" I try to address the several different factors that cause people to leave their homelands, including poverty and political upheaval. But even prior flows of immigration can be one of the "whys" because they establish connections between sending and receiving communities that make the trip to the U.S. easier and even more likely.
As to NAFTA, even supporters of free trade acknowledge that it is not likely to bring down the pressures pushing people out of Mexico for a decade or more. In the best case scenarios it will take at least that long for incomes in Mexico to improve enough to reduce migration pressures. In the meantime, NAFTA could actually induce an increase in immigration from Mexico, according to some experts.
Traditionally, there are high rates of migration among people who have been very poor and then manage to improve their lot just a little. That initial experience of upward mobility emboldens people and puts the money in their pockets that they need to make a trip to the U.S. So, we will not know for several years whether NAFTA can reduce immigration from Mexico.
Back to the top....
David T. Lopez of Houston, TX asks:
Why have Latino immigrants not utilized their voting power as much as other immigrant groups in American history? Is there a lack of charismatic political leadership?
Roberto Suro responds:
Voting power depends first of all on having voters, and Latinos have been wanting in this regards. Traditionally, immigrants who come from close by are the slowest to seek U.S. citizenship. In the past Mexicans and Canadians have lagged far behind Europeans and Asians in naturalization rates. That had meant low numbers of eligible voters and a weakened political position.
But, that has changed in recent years. Latinos of all sorts have been seeking citizenship in huge numbers since 1994 for both political and demographic reasons. The surge in naturalizations reflects a feeling of vulnerability in the wake of proposals that would cut immigration flows or deny access to social services. In addition some 3 million people, overwhelmingly Latinos, who gained access to legal status in an 1986 amnesty for illegal aliens, have become eligible for citizenship along with millions of legal immigrants who arrived in the 1980s.
All this adds up to the potential for greater political power, but translating that into reality will require, as the reader notes, leadership. In California and Texas, where the potential is greatest, the old guard that came up through the Mexican-American civil rights movement has begin to give way to fresher faces. However, no candidates have emerged who are likely to become household names.
The PBS NewsHour is Funded in part by: Additional Foundation and Corporate Sponsors
Program
Support
From:
Copyright © 1996- MacNeil/Lehrer Productions. All Rights Reserved. Support the kind of journalism done by the NewsHour...Become a member of your local PBS station.
