Saturday, August 23, 2008

Illegal Immegrants returning home?

One press release from the Mexican consulate in Dallas is making the MSM rounds.

Fox News

The illegal immigrant population in the U.S. has dropped 11 percent since August of last year, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. Its research shows 1.3 million illegal immigrants have returned to their home countries.

While this is good news (proper liquidity in the labor markets) if true... I wonder.

I guess Mexico will have a large labor force to get those oil fields pumping again. ;)

Now, how many Spanish speaking children were born in the US last year? Sorry, but one reason our economy works is one set of laws and one language. I'm pro-immigration, but I would prefer a system that required English proficiency testing first. Oh, I'm all for offering English classes to those already here (and to the Koreans... Ghad, how can so many Ghettos of LA have 70%+ of their population unable to speak English?)

OT: One of my side interests is exploring how the world is consolidating to five major languages (all the others are shrinking): Mandarin, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, and English.

Got Popcorn?
Neil

2 comments:

The Anonymous said...

"Sorry, but one reason our economy works is one set of laws and one language. I'm pro-immigration, but I would prefer a system that required English proficiency testing first."

Absolutely agree. I love the cross culturalization that immigrants bring us but the inability to communicate is something that always drives me nuts.

That is why I try to learn as much of an areas foreign language before I travel abroad. I agree with your comments too about the world congealing around a few dominant languages.

Case in point, when I went to places like Slovenia & Malta (i.e. languages not widely spoken beyond their political boundaries) it seems like everyone is able to speak English. However, I have had much more difficulty getting around Spain where Spanish (a dominant language) was pretty much the only language spoken.

wannabuy said...

Absolutely agree. I love the cross culturalization that immigrants bring us but the inability to communicate is something that always drives me nuts.

We can agree on this 100%

I also agree everyone should know the language they're visiting, even if its just 'please and thank you.'

Neil