Should the United States Mandate 'Integration' Courses?

WASHINGTON — In Germany, many immigrants must pass a 600-hour language course and another 30 hours on the country's legal system, culture and history.

The "integration courses" are designed to help foreigners adapt to German culture and understand Democratic principles of equal rights, tolerance and religious freedom.

Some believe the United States should do the same.

"There is a crisis of assimilation," said John Fonte, a senior fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute in Washington. "For American representative government to work, people have to believe we're all in this together."

Fonte said that required language and culture courses would be a positive step because many immigrants are not developing emotional attachments to the United States. He also advocates making English the nation's official language and eliminating ballots in other tongues.

Currently, foreigners who want to become U.S. citizens are required to pass a multiple-choice test that includes basic knowledge of American history and civics. Many prepare for the test by taking classes run by non-profit groups at community centers and churches.

The U.S. government offers materials to study, but does not require foreign legal residents or prospective citizens to pass a course or attend a certain amount of English-language instruction.

Immigrant advocates contend that current immigrants are assimilating at the same pace as past generations of newcomers and are anxious to learn English.

"Immigrants today are integrating as fast, and by some indicators faster, than immigrants did a century ago," said Cecilia Munoz, vice president for policy at the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic civil rights organization. "We are accomplishing high levels of integration with very little investment."

A study last year by the Pew Hispanic Center, a non-partisan research group in Washington, showed that 91 percent of Hispanic adults born in the United States of immigrant parents are fluent in English.

The study also found, however, that 28 percent of Hispanic immigrants said they speak only Spanish in the workplace, signaling some enclaves where English is infrequently spoken.

Alfonso Aguilar, head of the U.S. Office of Citizenship, said he is concerned about social and political cohesion in the future as the country becomes more diverse and does not have one dominant racial or ethnic category.

"We need to strengthen assimilation efforts. We need to look at citizenship from that perspective, because if not, I believe that 20 or 30 years down the road we may have serious challenges," he told a forum this week at the Migration Policy Institute, a non-partisan think tank in Washington. "We may have social tension. We may have groups that do not feel part of the larger community."

The United States is not considering integration courses such as in Germany but is trying to promote citizenship in other ways, including a recent revamping of the citizenship test to make it more profound and test knowledge of basic civic concepts essential to being an American, he said.

Aguilar noted the administration attempted to pass a measure last year that included $100 million for English language classes and other efforts to promote citizenship, but it was part of a large immigration overhaul that failed in the Senate. Passing something similar in an election year would be "tough," he added.

Aguilar said the United States may consider copying a program in Great Britain that pairs recent immigrants with citizens in a mentoring program. This could be a part of the Americorps volunteer program, he added.

Great Britain's mentoring program is aimed at refugees, but officials are considering expanding it to all recent immigrants in a widespread effort to promote citizenship. The volunteers teach the immigrants "things you can't read in a book," such as how to apply for job, when to put the garbage out, and how to engage with your neighbors, said Lord Peter Goldsmith, a former British attorney general who is leading a task force on the issue.

The assimilation of immigrants has become a hot political topic in Europe, where concerns about Muslim newcomers living in separate enclaves are leading to a wave of new, more strict immigration laws.

In the Netherlands, prospective immigrants are asked to buy and watch a movie about the country that includes a homosexual kiss and a topless woman. The idea is that people who cannot tolerate the film should not become Dutch. Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington think tank that advocates a reduction in immigration, said that many immigrants in the United States are not "psychologically" or "emotionally" assimilated, in part because of the Internet and affordable air travel, which allows them to stay in constant contact with their place of birth.

"Communications and transportation technology mean that immigrants just never really leave the old country," he said.

In addition, Krikorian said that the U.S. government, businesses and institutions do not demand that immigrants adapt to American culture by offering services in other languages and celebrating multi-culturalism.

Munoz disputed that notion, but said that the U.S. government needs to do more to help immigrants fully integrate into U.S. civic life, such as increasing federal money for English as a Second Language classes.

"There is very little government investment in English language instruction for immigrant adults," she said. "We rely on immigrants themselves, their families, and their communities for the integration process, and these structures are delivering good results with no resources."

On the Web:

Pew Hispanic Center: www.pewhispanic.org

National Council of La Raza: www.nclr.org

Center for Immigration Studies: www.cis.org