Economy strong but face of Utah changing, lawmakers told

@ SCfan - you can't get a job here in Utah unless you do speak spanish but you don't have to speak english. I lost out on two job interviews because I don't speak spanish fluently. I speak the language of my ancestors that they had when they came here which is English. I now want to add french and german to the mix.

Being over 35 in this state means you're old. No company will hire you regardless of your qualifications.

Historically, immigrants cluster together in order to protect themselves from the indigenous population just as the Irish, Italians, Polish, and Jews did in Boston, NYC and Chicago a century ago. It takes time and often a generation or more to fully assimilate from one culture to another and the more the federal government keeps out of the progression the better.

My great-grand mother immigrated from Ireland and her passport stated that she was an "illiterate school teacher" because she refused to speak English to the port authorities in England and listed Irish as her native language.

Neil T, the biggest problem is that too many people ignore the root of the illegal immigration problem. Just allowing people to come in and spending our money on them to educate and what ever else is not a solution, though many seem to think it is. No one should feel the need to leave their home countries and so forth just to be able to feed themselves and raise families. It's shameful that we are expected to ignore our laws, or to just accept them, many who are criminals connected to the cartels. This does not mean that we should not have compassion. But, none of this addresses or solves the problems in these countries which is where our attention should actually be focused. The goal of the international community should be to address the reasons why these people leave and how to help them succeed in their own countries.

Here we go again. It would seem that Miss Perlich is playing a record so old now that I'm surprised it has any grooves left. More money for education. Hasn't worked because that is not the problem.

If there is a lack of integration with new immigrants one of the big reasons was stated in the article, but I'll bet the Perlichs of the world missed it.

Linguistics. No one is going to become a mainstream citizen in this or any other state (see exception below) if they don't speak English. Also try getting higher education without it. Try getting a well paying job without it. Learning English first until it is mastered should be the only goal of new immigrants, if they really want to become part of the American culture. In California, there is a whole Spanish speaking civilization, largely in the Southern California area, that does not need English because most all work and economy are done in Spanish. That is what has happened with their huge increase of numbers. Do we in Utah want to see that? I be interested to hear.

Actually, there is only one problem with illegal immigration-----It is illegal. If the Federal Government didn't make it so difficult to come here legally, we wouldn't have this problem in the first place. I don't know about anyone else, but I get a little ticked off when someone cuts inline in front of me.

I for one 'old' woman would rather be referred to as 'elderly.' - thank you very much!

The article had nothing to do with illegal immigration. Fact illegal immigration is down. To post that there is a huge influx of illegal immigrants to the state is not based on fact. The Obama administration has deported more illegal immigrants than the previous administration. The article stated that Utah demographics are changing. That is a documented fact. I deal in facts not stereotypes of people based on race or ethnicity. The anti-immigration crowd makes everything about race or immigration. They feel threatened by people who have a different culture. Illegal immigration is mostly due to poverty, violence and government corruption in Central America and a desire to improve their situation in life. Do I support illegal immigration, of course not. I consider illegal immigrants more as victims of circumstances than criminals. You may see the situation differently. Fine. People believe what they want to believe.

Utah needs to continue to attract Corporate America. We are still way too dependent on residential construction and Oil & Gas.

Watch out for all those old white women! Such an awful threat to society, aren't they? (Actually, I like living among old women, of any color. They are usually cheerful, resourceful, funny, full of wisdom and great stories.) And I am quickly becoming one of them...

samhill

That's the ontologic oligophrenia of the liberal-individualistic paradigm. An atomized conception of man which ignores the fact that we are a product of a given community and a given historical context. The "individual" is an abstraction which mutilates the notion of man as a fundamentally social being, which just can't be replaced by any other "individual" with a radically different background.

Moreover, there are many studies that show how "diversity" affects negatively many indicators of social health in human communities, like trust in neighbors and political authorities, involvement in charity and communitary projects, voting and the willingness to share one's wealth. For the case of the US you can look up a large study carried out by Robert Putnam.

Another example of the failure of the "multicultural" ideology are large groups of immigrants in Europe, who have created parallel societies inside their host countries (e.gr. in France there are zones forbidden for the natives, and dangerous for the police).

Populations in this planet have characteristic/average traits (physical and behavioural), and that makes a very different thing our dealings with one foreigner from managing an uncontrolled influx of thousands or millions.

That photo of our beautiful city was not taken during our current rash of poisoned air.

Perlich has always backed illegal immigration in Utah. She does believe in a one world government I do believe. I have heard her in person. Not one thing was ever said about the states citizens except that we are old and need to be replaced. She sounds much like Obama. The problem is that she thinks we are stupid enough to believe that anyone will ever prosper under her ideals. However, she is the elite who walks with her nose held high.

Today's immigrants are not "assimilating well" because we live in a multicultural society encouraged by our own federal government and education system. If you live in a multicultural society, into which culture do you assimilate? Assimilation is dead; live with it.

Reading between the lines, this may be summed up as:

There is a huge influx of Hispanics (among other groups) into Utah, and they are not assimilating well.

This begs a very serious question, the answer to which will drive many decisions:
Will we tolerate the huge influx of ILLEGAL immigrants into the state, which dilutes the benefits of immigration by the many LEGAL immigrants, and brings serious problems?

That raises the even more serious question about enforcement of federal immigration policy, which if not done makes Utah's actions almost meaningless.

Some will argue for amnesty and discarding the basic concept of the rule of law and nation of laws in order to pander to people who are here in violation of the law.

Others will argue that while legal immigration is good and encouraged, we cannot have the robust economy and civilized society based on the rule of law if we do not enforce our immigration laws, and granting amnesty will destroy core principles attracting immigrants in the first place.

It is time to decide which course we will take as a state, and as a nation. Sadly the selected choices may not be the same.

Pam Perlich sounds wearisomely like so many other racist/sexist scholars who are so fixated on such "demographic" factors that she completely forgets that a society is made up of unique, individual, human beings who, despite the constant attempts to categorize them for political purposes, are **never** the simple representatives of some larger group with which so many politically-minded people try to associate them for politically-motivated purposes of manipulation.

Societies change because people change, whether they are white/black/brown/blue or male/female or big/small/tall/short, etc., etc.