Thursday, November 19, 2015

Did Roosevelt Popularize the Idea Immigrants Should Learn English?

   Was Theodore Roosevelt the father of hard-line thinking against immigration, or did he merely echo the thoughts of others, when he wrote:

We should insist that if the immigrant who comes here does in good faith become an
American and assimilates himself to us he shall be treated on an exact equality with every one else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed or birth-place or origin.

But this is predicated upon the man’s becoming in very fact an American and nothing but an American. If he tries to keep segregated with men of his own origin and separated from the rest of America, then he isn’t doing his part as an American. There can be no divided allegiance here. . . We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language, for we intend to see that the crucible turns our people out as Americans, of American nationality, and not as dwellers in a polyglot boarding-house; and we have room for but one soul loyalty, and that is loyalty to the American people.

   That the immigrant should learn English and assimilate into America is now common thinking among many. Many think it an outrage when the immigrant does not learn English. I wonder if Roosevelt was much the originator of this line of thinking, or at least the person who made it popular.

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