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About 'Hispanics'
Low-skilled illegal immigrants are slowing the ascension of Latinos, as a group, into the U.S. middle class, the nation's most prestigious research group warned Wednesday...(original opinion) The article alludes to several characteristics about "Hispanic" immigration that are usually missing from most of the debate. To start with, the very word "Hispanic" is a grotesque, politically correct term popularized by the US government first in the 1980 census. It really defines nothing, and is both irritating to the people thus labeled and confuses the issues surrounding legal and illegal immigration from a huge region of the planet. Perhaps one of the most interesting definition of "Hispanics" is "people who do not interbreed with each other if they are from different countries, religions, ethnic groups, social or economic classes, education, or speak different languages." They are oddly unique in this way, that is, in not wanting to have anything to do with each other. At least until they cross the US border, and at least as far as the US government is concerned. And no, they don't intermarry with each other up here, either, though they will intermarry under some circumstances with anybody else. A minority of the "Hispanics" who are Mexican, which is to say mostly Indian, are a majority in the US only because their country of origin happens to be right next door. Not surprisingly, the next largest groups tend to be the Guatemalans, from "the next country down", and the Puerto Ricans, who technically at least are from the United States already. The next largest group would probably be the Cubans, from the theoretical 51st State, sooner or later, again to be part of the United States also. Maybe sometime, weather permitting. Though not the rest of the Caribbean. Especially Aruba. I hope this clears things up a tad. No? Well, among the other countries labeled as "Hispanic", we have the mostly African negroes from Belize and the entirely white looking people, a lot of them at least, from South America, that speak both mostly Spanish, of some dialect or other, or Portuguese. Or some Indian language or frequently English. Though it seems counterintuitive, it should be pointed out that neither the Spanish, from "Hispania", nor the Portuguese, also from "sort-of-Hispania", are not "Hispanic", and I probably shouldn't dream on speculating about the Catalans or the Basques, who get really snippy if you refer to them as "Spanish". So, anyway, back to the Mexicans, who are most of our legal and illegal aliens these days. Pretty much like the other immigrants who came to the US uninvited, they integrate in about three generations. However, because we have learned that it's probably better that they integrate faster than do like Europe does with its immigrants, this integration is happening a lot faster than the norm. Which brings up the statement from the original quoted text: Low-skilled illegal immigrants are slowing the ascension of Latinos, as a group, into the U.S. middle class, the nation's most prestigious research group warned Wednesday... Since having a larger, younger, work-oriented middle class is a good thing, especially since we "non-Hispanics and others" are getting on in years and need somebody to pay for our retirements, and since "Latinos" (a subset of "Hispanics") do seem to integrate quickly and ascend to the middle class quickly, we should probably conclude two things: 1) Having a goodly degree of Mexican immigrants is a good thing, as long as it is not done to excess, and, 2) To help the Mexican immigrants who are already in our country ascend to the middle class as soon as possible is also a good thing. Which basically means that we need to erect a wall mostly as a governor to limit the unrestricted flow of Mexicans into the United States; while, ironically, encouraging far more of them to legally immigrate to the US. It also means that we should reconsider the label "Hispanic", and perhaps try to come up with some other labels when deciding what people we already have enough of for the time being, and what people we could add to the ol' melting pot without destabilizing the cosmic order. For example, since he wouldn't dream of marrying a different "Hispanic", we might allow a female Peruvian Taoist who *also* speaks Japanese, has a masters degree in Botany, with an annual salary of $78,000; so at least that Peruvian "Hispanic" will have somebody to get married to. Otherwise he might have to marry someone who only has a bachelor's degree. Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-03-02 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=144247 |