Integration Failing in America

(thetrumpet.com) 4/10/15 - Increasing numbers of immigrants are clinging to their own culture rather than assimilating into American society.

More than 25 percent of Boston’s residents were born outside the United States.

“You can’t find a place in Boston that doesn’t have a growing immigrant population,” said Alejandra St. Guillen, director of Boston’s Office of New Bostonians.

But it isn’t just Boston. Whole communities that cannot speak English are popping up across America. Washington, D.C., and six Maryland and Virginia school districts spend $2.4 billion on sources and programs related to Limited English Proficiency (LEP). Alexandria, Virginia, devotes 45.8 percent of the school systems’ budget to LEPstudents.

A January 2015 study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), indicates that in some metro area counties in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Colombia, 20 to 30 percent of the population is foreign born. That means approximately a quarter of the population of the nation’s capital was not born in the U.S.

And the refusal or inability of immigrants to integrate is widespread.

In March, St. Cloud Technical High School in Minnesota showed a prime example of the effects of non-integration when more than 100 Somali students walked out of classes. The walk-out was supposedly in response to a picture posted on the Internet implying a Somali student could be a terrorist. Tensions became so high that another school in the district had to be locked down for safety.

”Situations regarding race and culture are in the forefront at this moment. It’s a hot topic,” Willie Jett, superintendent of the St. Cloud school district said. “At times, can there be conflict? Definitely.”

Somali leaders say the school is racist and needs to hire more minority teachers to be able to relate to immigrant students. Former prospective St. Cloud City Council Candidate Abdul Kulane said that the Somali community needed to be involved in deciding how the school is run. He said that reports of the school district’s inability to find minority teachers is just an excuse.

It’s a truism that a house divided against itself will fall.