The Americanization Challenge Is Real
Mark Krikorian
Group of People Taking the USA Naturalization Oath of Allegiance
It’s not them, it’s us.
As if to confirm the problem Andrew Beck identified in “Assimilation and Its Discontents,” U.S. Representative Delia Ramirez just days after publication of his piece declared (in Spanish) at a leftist gathering in Mexico City, “I’m a proud Guatemalan before I’m an American.” The Chicago-born Democratic congresswoman—more than the Hindu idol in Texas Beck decries—defines the problem we face in creating an unum out of the plures of people, states, and regions that make up our sprawling continental nation.
Representative Ramirez deserves all the obloquy heaped on her for being America Second (at best). But the core assimilation problem we face is not that some immigrants and their children are insufficiently committed to America—it’s that America is insufficiently committed to assimilation.
Immigrants are going to take their cues from Americans about what we expect of them regarding assimilation. As an old boss of mine used to say, you teach people how to treat you—and we’ve been teaching newcomers that it’s okay to, as Beck puts it, “come to America, live in America—but…not become an American.”
Before addressing the post-Americanism of our leadership class and institutions, it’s important to consider the radically transformed technological environment within which immigration and assimilation take place today. Cheap air travel and cell service have made it easier not only to come here initially, but also to maintain ties with the old country. Immigrants can travel back and forth frequently and call/FaceTime/Zoom daily with family and friends.
https://americanmind.org/features/assimilation-and-its-discontents/the-americanization-challenge-is-real/
