Evidence That Our Immigration Policy Has Been Munged For A Long Time

Demand for English Lessons Outstrips Supply

One of the contentions held by many who are greatly concerned about our immigration issues is that many immigrants--legally here or not--have not assimilated into our society with an eye toward "being American." My Uncle Harry, who is a second-generation American with Croation-Serbian ancestry, rails against those immigrants that come to America and do not learn English or adapt to American cultural norms. He points out that everyone that came to America in his generation worked hard at learning English, supported the nation by paying a fair share of taxes, and acculturated to American norms as a demonstration of their commitment to their new "adopted country."

While Harry, and others, have a valid point about a lot of immigrants to our nation since the early 1960s, especially those coming from Latin-American origins who come here and refuse to become citizens because they desire to keep their native identity. It is somewhat disingenuous to come to a nation for reasons of seeking prosperity and economic opportunity and then entrench one's self in an anti-American view of the world. I have encountered many Domincans, Cubanos, Ecuadorans, Guatemalans, Haitians, Venezuelans and Panamanians in the US who hold these views. But I have also met at least an equal number of immigrants from the same places of origin that embrace America as their new home with a love for the US as their new nation who encounter one obstacle after another in their efforts toward embracing their new home.

One of those obstacles is the ability to enroll and participate in community-based classes in English. The tradition of offering English classes to immigrant populations began with groups like Hull House run by cultural heroes like Jane Addams. The notion of giving newcomers a helping hand up and out of the poverty that often accompanies the process of immigrating to the US began in the late 1800s when people like Addams recognized the imbalance and injustice that confronted these immigrants in terms of finding work for a fair wage, expression of culture, assimilation into a new culture without losing one's own ethnic identity, exploitation by big business and those seeking a way around the ethical standards of good business.

Perhaps we need to re-evaluate our stances and understanding of the entire process of immigration--legally sought or not. Perhaps we need to re-evaluate our own efforts at welcoming those that do come to our nation seeking justice in both political and economic senses of the word. Perhaps we need to remember our own historical roots and the obstacles our own families faced to embrace our country, and the reason those obstacles existed. Perhaps we need to remember that without the classes in English and the helping hand offered by groups like Hull House and the social workers that brought about changes in New York, and the public health campaigns brought about as a result, none of us would be eating clean food, drinking healthy water, immunized against major diseases, less exposed to tuberculosis and cholera, and not enjoying one of the better standards of living in the world.

Demand for English Lessons Outstrips Supply

Two weeks after she moved here from her native Brazil, Maria de Oliveira signed up for free English classes at a squat storefront in this working-class suburb, figuring that with an associate’s degree and three years as an administrative assistant, she could find a good job in America so long as she spoke the language.

The woman who runs the classes at Mount Vernon’s Workforce and Career Preparation Center added Ms. Oliveira’s name to her pink binder, at the bottom of a 90-person waiting list that stretched across seven pages. That was in October. Ms. Oliveira, 26, finally got a seat in the class on Jan. 16.

“I keep wondering how much more I’d know if I hadn’t had to wait so long,” she said in Portuguese.

As immigrants increasingly settle away from large urban centers — New York’s suburbs have had a net gain of 225,000 since 2000, compared with 44,000 in the city — many are waiting months or even years to get into government-financed English classes, which are often overcrowded and lack textbooks.

A survey last year by the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials found that in 12 states, 60 percent of the free English programs had waiting lists, ranging from a few months in Colorado and Nevada to as long as two years in New Mexico and Massachusetts, where the statewide list has about 16,000 names.

The United States Department of Education counted 1.2 million adults enrolled in public English programs in 2005 — about 1 in 10 of the 10.3 million foreign-born residents 16 and older who speak English “less than very well,” or not at all, according to census figures from the same year. Federal money for such classes is matched at varying rates from state to state, leaving an uneven patchwork of programs that advocates say nowhere meets the need.

“We have a lot of folks who need these services and who go unserved,” said Claudia Merkel-Keller of the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, noting that her state has waiting lists in every county, “from beginner all the way through proficient level.” New Jersey, like New York and many other states, does not keep statewide figures on how many people are on waiting lists.

Luis Sanchez, 47, a Peruvian truck driver for a beer distributor in New Brunswick, has been in this country 10 years — and on the waiting list for English classes in Perth Amboy five months. “You live from day to day, waiting to get the call that you can come to class,” Mr. Sanchez said in Spanish, explaining that he knew a little English but wanted to improve his writing skills so he could apply for better jobs. “I keep on waiting.”

Mr. Sanchez is unlikely to get the call soon: Perth Amboy’s Adult Education Center recently discovered that it was operating in the red and canceled 9 of its 11 evening classes in English as a second language, including all at beginner and intermediate levels. In Orange County, N.Y., where the immigrant population doubled in the past 16 years, the Board of Cooperative Education Services’ adult education program has stopped advertising for fear its already overflowing beginner classes will be overwhelmed.

In Framingham, Mass., 20 miles west of Boston, hundreds of people used to spend the night in line to register for English as a second language, so the program now selects students by picking handwritten names from a big plastic box.

“With the lottery, everyone has the same chance,” said Christine Taylor Tibor, director of Framingham’s Adult E.S.L. Plus program. “Unfortunately, you might have to enter the lottery several times before you get in.”

Census figures show that in the United States there were 32.6 million foreign-born residents 18 years or older in 2005, up about 18 percent from the 27.5 million counted in 2000 (and nearly twice the 17.1 million in 1990). Federal spending on adult education, about $580 million last year, has increased 23 percent since 2000 and more than tripled since 1990; some 45 percent of the money is devoted to English.