GOP should remember: Data show immigrants enforce, not threaten, US values (CS Monitor Op-ed)

[pinto]

GOP should remember: Data show immigrants enforce, not threaten, US values

One sticking point in the House GOP discussion of immigration reform is concern over whether immigrants will be productive members of society. Republicans shouldn't worry. Immigrants outperform native-born citizens on key measures of American values and civic engagement.

By Daniel Allott, Op-ed contributor / July 10, 2013

A comprehensive immigration reform bill has passed the Senate, but it faces dubious prospects in the House, where it probably won’t garner enough of the Republican support needed to bring it to a floor vote. One Republican sticking point is that the prospective law doesn’t go far enough to ensure that immigrants integrate into American society to become productive, contributing members who uphold American values and are civically engaged.

But there is a rich irony in such concern over whether immigrants will become productive members of society: On several traditional measures of American values and societal productivity, America’s native-born citizens are being outperformed by its immigrants – both legal and undocumented.

Studies show that immigrants applying for citizenship surpass American citizens on tests of knowledge of American history and civics. To take one example, in a 2012 telephone poll, Xavier University researchers found that 35 percent of Americans failed the civics section of the US naturalization test. In contrast, 97.5 percent of immigrants applying for citizenship passed the test in 2012.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2013/0710/GOP-should-remember-Data-show-immigrants-enforce-not-threaten-US-values?nav=87-frontpage-entryCommentary

[Kablooie]

1. Immaterial. US values are not a consideration for the GOP.

It's a marketing point sure, but the only thing they care about is power.
Pure unadulterated, unequivocal power.
They would be willing to sacrifice any human value, no matter how immoral or damaging, if it would give them more power.

[pinto]

2. And any Obama "scandal" they can latch onto instead of doing their jobs - legislation.

[Igel]

3. The "test" portion of that article is humorous.

Seriously.

I've seen people get prepped for the citizenship civics test. Understanding? Not important. Context? Not important.

You memorize the bits and pieces that others have reported are on the test. Period. The awesome knowledge of civics is acquired in a couple of hours a week in the course of a few weeks. Change the test slightly, and the native-born American fail rate will stay the same but the foreign-born fail rate will flip to 97%.

[pinto]

4. Yeah, yet disagree on context. It does provide a "framework" to an extent. What folks do with that

is up to them, foreign born or native born.