Time has shown that it is possible. Although the process may be painful, the results indicate that the whole is usually stronger and more resilient than its parts. These days, as important as becoming a member of the larger group and assimilating is retaining one’s own roots, culture, and identity. Is it possible to do both? Questions like these probably occurred to the immigrants who landed on Ellis Island (www.ellisisland.com/), and today’s immigrants are likely asking them as well.
How to deal with these concerns is also a challenge to our public institutions as the immigrant population continues to swell. How can a nation be governed successfully if so many are not familiar with or do not trust the rules?
Take California, for example. Often referred to as a bellwether for the rest of the nation when it comes to many trends—from population to economy—California for the last several decades has been the leading state of intended residence for immigrants entering the United States. In 1998, the state was the residential destination for 170,000 of the nation’s 660,000 immigrants. New York ranked second with 97,000 immigrants. The leading countries of origin for immigrants to California in 1998 were Mexico (62,100), the Philippines (16,200), China, including Taiwan (16,300), India (7,200), Vietnam (6,500), El Salvador (6,300), Iran (3,600), and Guatemala (3,300) (Immigrants, Fiscal Year 1998, 1998 Statistical Yearbook of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, U.S. Department of Justice).
The U.S. Census Bureau’s 1990 census reported that an astounding 224 languages as well as numerous dialects were spoken in the state, making it the most linguistically diverse in the nation. According to the bureau’s Current Population Survey, in 1999 more than 4 percent of California’s 33.4 million residents spoke no English at all.
Imagine being a teacher in a classroom where for many students English is not an acquired language but one that is being learned slowly and painfully. Imagine being in a courtroom where a complainant doesn’t speak the language well enough to explain the problem to the judge. Such are the challenges that California's immigrant populations and institutions together face.
For many adult immigrants, the process of becoming a citizen is their first, often-difficult law-related education (LRE) lesson. As a result, however, many learn more about the U.S. and its institutions than long-time citizens do. LRE can help reinforce some of these lessons while teaching new civics lessons as well. Groups serving new immigrant populations are one of the best places for these lessons that can help immigrants become functionally literate, from filling out a job application or dealing with landlord-tenant problems and small claims. The need is there; meeting it can boost immigrant confidence as well as reinforce our nation's basic tenets of liberty, justice, and equality.
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