# Do we have enough immigrants in the US? If not should there be a limit? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 8, 2010, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-enough-immigrants-in-the-us-if-not-should-there-be-a-limit/542371 "2010-06-08T01:01:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-enough-immigrants-in-the-us-if-not-should-there-be-a-limit/542371/61 "2010-06-10T19:37:24Z")
Well, not necessarily. We might just start importing our oranges and grapefruit and tomatoes and such. ---
**Author:** ![Acid\_Lamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Acid\_Lamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acid_Lamp)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-enough-immigrants-in-the-us-if-not-should-there-be-a-limit/542371/62 "2010-06-10T19:43:58Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Well, not necessarily. We might just start importing our oranges and grapefruit and tomatoes and such. Possibly, but I doubt it. ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-enough-immigrants-in-the-us-if-not-should-there-be-a-limit/542371/63 "2010-06-10T20:35:01Z")
Or, the fruit will just rot in the orchards, like last year. [http://www.katu.com/news/business/3612726.html](http://www.katu.com/news/business/3612726.html) ---
**Author:** ![SeaCanary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@SeaCanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaCanary)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-enough-immigrants-in-the-us-if-not-should-there-be-a-limit/542371/64 "2010-06-10T21:25:10Z")
> [@Rushgeekgirl](#): > > I’m sorry this is incorrect. That is not American culture. That’s your opinion. I’ve been an American for over 40 years, born and raised in Tennessee and I can assure you my culture does not desire for government documents to be in English only. My state government gladly provides translation to ANY language necessary and in _every_ government-sent letter I get (my daughter has special needs so we have to reapply every six months for state health insurance) there is a blue sheet with dozens of languages explaining that if you need help with an interpreter one will be provided free of charge. > > That’s MY American government, that’s MY American culture. And your local opinion. And just like you’re doing with me now, I’ll bet there are people local to you who have opinions different from yours. The original question was what is American culture. How can an answer be anything other than opinion or anecdotal? And my opinion is what I stated and more specifically **it used to be**. I was born and raised in Maryland and DC. I’m a lot older than you are and first generation American on my father’s side. My aunts, my father and my uncle would have been ashamed to admit they needed voting instructions, or notes from the public school translated into Italian. They worked with the discrimination against being Italian immigrants until Joe DiMaggio made it cool to be Italian. And even after being Italian was sort of OK, none of their children except one – and it’s a big Roman Catholic family – was taught Italian by his mother. (One other learned Italian in college, but that’s it.) That’s how important assimilation **was** to us. I have maintained contact with college and high school friends over the decades and I know of one who learned German from his father. None of the rest learned any more than a few words of Spanish, Swedish, Portuguese, Yiddish or Latvian. My best friend has no idea if his last name ever had an umlaut over the “O”. So far as I can tell, to my peers and their parents, assimilation was a thing devoutly to be pursued. And I ask for none of that in today’s America. To hear Chinese I had to go to Chinatown in DC (and it was Cantonese). To hear Italian outside of my father and his sisters I had to go to Little Italy in Baltimore. To hear Russian, or Mandarin today I go to work. To hear Spanish I go almost anywhere outside my door. And all of that is fine by me. The **very specific** kind of assimilation I request and require is that an immigrant be able to somehow-or-other deal with a government form written in English if they want to get a driver’s license, or vote, or pay taxes, or understand any website with a domain of .gov or .edu except for private schools. I state that it was an American characteristic. It was; leastwise in the DC/metro area which is geographically parochial and culturally as cosmopolitan as you could ask for. (If your father or mother served in WWII and your experience is different, please speak up.) I lived it and I periodically revisit it to make sure I’m not imagining things. And I request and require a small subset of that experience from today’s immigrants. At their expense. Not mine. ---
**Author:** ![SeaCanary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@SeaCanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaCanary)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-enough-immigrants-in-the-us-if-not-should-there-be-a-limit/542371/65 "2010-06-10T21:33:34Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > [Here](http://pewhispanic.org/files/factsheets/foreignborn2008/Table%2022.pdf) you go (2008 numbers). Can you find a source with a domain of .gov? > [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Because the IRS published Form 1040 in English and Spanish, but not in Russian, Mandarin, Haitian Creole, Vietnamese or Arabic. Telling you to suck it up and deal with the fact that you can file a tax return in any of those languages would be silly, because you can’t. It’s a poor day when you don’t learn something new. So, changing topics from my original post, what is it about the Hispanic population that merits this treatment? ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-enough-immigrants-in-the-us-if-not-should-there-be-a-limit/542371/66 "2010-06-10T22:43:53Z")
I’d like to see America allow more immigration from western Europe, particularly Britain. ---
**Author:** ![Acid\_Lamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Acid\_Lamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acid_Lamp)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-enough-immigrants-in-the-us-if-not-should-there-be-a-limit/542371/67 "2010-06-10T23:01:57Z")
> [@SeaCanary](#): > > Can you find a source with a domain of .gov? > > It’s a poor day when you don’t learn something new. > > So, changing topics from my original post, what is it about the Hispanic population that merits this treatment? There’s a lot of them, and they vote. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-enough-immigrants-in-the-us-if-not-should-there-be-a-limit/542371/68 "2010-06-10T23:47:44Z")
> [@SeaCanary](#): > > And your local opinion. And just like you’re doing with me now, I’ll bet there are people local to you who have opinions different from yours. > > The original question was what is American culture. How can an answer be anything other than opinion or anecdotal? And my opinion is what I stated and more specifically **it used to be**. I was born and raised in Maryland and DC. I’m a lot older than you are and first generation American on my father’s side. > > My aunts, my father and my uncle would have been ashamed to admit they needed voting instructions, or notes from the public school translated into Italian. They worked with the discrimination against being Italian immigrants until Joe DiMaggio made it cool to be Italian. And even after being Italian was sort of OK, none of their children except one – and it’s a big Roman Catholic family – was taught Italian by his mother. (One other learned Italian in college, but that’s it.) That’s how important assimilation **was** to us. > > I have maintained contact with college and high school friends over the decades and I know of one who learned German from his father. None of the rest learned any more than a few words of Spanish, Swedish, Portuguese, Yiddish or Latvian. My best friend has no idea if his last name ever had an umlaut over the “O”. > > So far as I can tell, to my peers and their parents, assimilation was a thing devoutly to be pursued. > > And I ask for none of that in today’s America. > > To hear Chinese I had to go to Chinatown in DC (and it was Cantonese). To hear Italian outside of my father and his sisters I had to go to Little Italy in Baltimore. > > To hear Russian, or Mandarin today I go to work. To hear Spanish I go almost anywhere outside my door. > > And all of that is fine by me. > > The **very specific** kind of assimilation I request and require is that an immigrant be able to somehow-or-other deal with a government form written in English if they want to get a driver’s license, or vote, or pay taxes, or understand any website with a domain of .gov or .edu except for private schools. > > I state that it was an American characteristic. It was; leastwise in the DC/metro area which is geographically parochial and culturally as cosmopolitan as you could ask for. (If your father or mother served in WWII and your experience is different, please speak up.) I lived it and I periodically revisit it to make sure I’m not imagining things. > > And I request and require a small subset of that experience from today’s immigrants. At their expense. Not mine. Oh good grief. My “local opinions”? It’s an ENTIRE STATE. The government has never had a problem, whether state or local, offering translation and interpretation for any government related assistance. It actually gives people jobs. It helps new immigrants, regardless of language skills, to acclimate to living in our country. See, you don’t have to know English to be here. You need to know the rules though. Those blue sheets let them know that they can have help learning the rules. You like anecdote? Here’s your anecdote: I have personal experience with seeing how difficult it is for someone that struggles with English. He came here to work a few years ago, worked with a group who still spoke his language, lived in a compound in Tallahassee, Florida where he wasn’t able to get out and about until they cut jobs last winter. When he came to stay with us he didn’t speak a word of English despite living in the US for two years. There were no English lessons where he was. Now he’s here and working on his English but it’s slow going. He didn’t go to school at all. Not even Kindergarten (My SO had one year and that was it.). We got him a language learning system but you don’t even start the written part until you’re halfway through the plan. And I’ll be honest, I think he’s a little simpleminded. But he pays his bills and taxes so when he calls to get help with his phone bill, or order a pizza, or try to find an immigration lawyer or whatever, it’s nice that he can actually understand what is being said. If he ever needs help from our government it helps them as well as him so they don’t have to struggle to communicate. Businesses that have multiple language translation assistance do it for the money, obviously. It benefits them. And it benefits our government too. I’m guessing your problem with this is because you don’t want “your” taxes to go for this translation assistance because you keep saying “my money”. Those people are paying “their money” in too, remember? Since you asked, the reason the Hispanic population gets this “special treatment” is because in some parts of our country Spanish is considered a dominant language. It is the second most common language in the country. It makes SENSE to offer Spanish translation, like it or not. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-enough-immigrants-in-the-us-if-not-should-there-be-a-limit/542371/69 "2010-06-11T00:31:40Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > I’d like to see America allow more immigration from western Europe, particularly Britain. Why? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-enough-immigrants-in-the-us-if-not-should-there-be-a-limit/542371/70 "2010-06-11T02:12:11Z")
> [@SeaCanary](#): > > Can you find a source with a domain of .gov? It’s the Pew Hispanic Center, which is administered by the Pew Research Center. It’s about as credible a citation as you’ll find. [QUOTE=HNC] Why? [/QUOTE] He’s British, and he’s got some people to get rid of. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-enough-immigrants-in-the-us-if-not-should-there-be-a-limit/542371.md?page=3)