News From the Goron Front

[A Black Falcon]

They will eventually learn more English and become more like the rest of the Americans. Like every other immigrant group that has ever come to the US, they will eventually. It'll just take a few generations... and given modern times I'd expect them to keep a definite sense of a different identity. But they will know English. You just can't expect first generation immigrants to do that! Second generation you could think should be more bilingual, and each generation after more English-speaking, but it isn't an instant process and it can't be.

Oh, and without immigrants the US would be nothing. A continual flow of immigrants is a huge part of what keeps our nation running. They do the bad jobs no one else wants, after all... you don't notice because here it's normal for us to have immigrants but in other countries, the lack of them is causing major, major problems. Just look at Spain, Italy, Denmark, Japan, etc... all those nations that have aging, shrinking populations and dropping birthrates but severely restrict immigration in an attempt to keep ethnic purity... foolish and shortsighted in both the short and long runs. America's policy of allowing immigrants is why we are great.

And, this is key, NOT just European immigrants from 100 years ago and more! Did you know that immigration is the reason that our population is growing? Without it, the US would be dropping just like those European nations (and Japan) I mentioned before. A dropping population causes problems, especially when coupled with more old people... it's becoming very serious in Europe. So few paying in to the healthcare systems and so many taking out! Immigration helps solve that, for one, as well as filling in many jobs that no one else really wants... fear for the recent immigrant group is a very old thing, but misguided.

Oh, and if you want to see how long-term I'm talking about here, did you know why the US Constitution doesn't have a clause saying "English is the official language"? It's because of the Pennsylvania "Dutch" (they're actually Germans, but the German word for "German" sounds a lot like 'Dutch'... Deutch, I think... or close to that...), mostly. As well as other groups like the Dutch (real Dutch that time. :D) in New York. By the 1790s they weren't speaking English yet, and there were a lot of them so a official language was intentionally left out. And it was a very, very good idea.