In the wake of Boston, author/investigator Stanley Kurtz , writing at NRO, said that the Boston terrorist attack brought to the light of day the great failing of the once successful assimilation of our immigrant population—the loss of that all important anchor of patriotic assimilation.
The mainstream press is filled with stories and opinion pieces about the connection between the Boston bombings and the immigration reform bill. The point in common is a near-total failure to grapple with the weightiest Boston-related argument critics of the bill have offered – that the terror attack is an extreme symptom of a far broader problem, the breakdown of our system of patriotic assimilation.
Kurtz and John O’Sullivan, also at NRO, wrote late last week about a new study by the venerable Hudson Institute:
… John Fonte and Althea Nagai (“America’s Patriotic Assimilation System is Broken“)
Here is O’Sullivan:
We know very little of the marathon bombers and their motives thus far, but what we know points to some very obvious points. Some of these points are so obvious, moreover, that commentators and politicians are already saying that we shouldn’t even consider them.
The first point that strikes me is that these young men should have had every reason to be happy in the United States and grateful to the country for its giving them sanctuary.
[….]
In that case — and I suspect we shall find also in the case of the marathon bombers — the explanation was (or included the fact) that they had been assimilated into a nullity.
Myth explodes!
Referring to Britain’s Subway bombers raised in the UK in upstanding families, O’Sullivan continues.
They had therefore looked around for a heroic cause they could identify with. The radical Islamists provided them with the cause of radical Islamism — and they embarked on the relatively short road to mass murder.
When that happened, several British commentators argued that this wouldn’t happen in America because America, with its public and private ceremonies of Americanization, had solved the conundrum of how to turn immigrants into loyal and patriotic Americans.
Alas, I had to tell them sadly that they were a generation behind the times. America now bore all the marks of a society that had been subjected to several decades of relentless indoctrination in the dogmas of multiculturalism and bilingualism. And the results are now in.
[….]
Into this moral and patriotic vacuum seeps what Orwell called “transferred nationalism.” In his day this was usually some variety of Marxism; today it often often a variation on radical Islam. But it is adopted and sparks violent thoughts in the minds of young men whom official America has shielded from the old Americanization.
Getting patriotic assimilation right is as vital — perhaps more vital — than getting border security right. It is an essential part of any comprehensive immigration reform worth the name. To propose opening the country to millions of new immigrants until we have solved this problem is simply to invite more violence from more young men whom we have disoriented and left victim to the worse impulses.
It is worse than Kurtz and O’Sullivan know!
Not only are we not encouraging assimilation of ethnic groups being admitted under the legal framework of the Refugee Resettlement Act of 1980, we are in fact ENCOURAGING BALKANIZATION through grant programs for Ethnic Community Based Organizations administered by the Office of Refugee Resettlement.
You tell me! If we are giving federal grants to groups like these, are we encouraging separation and notions of ethnic superiority—-you betcha! Consider these ethnic-centered groups which received grants in 2009 as mini-ACORNS. Fostering competition, they help THEIR people get hooked up with social services and teach them how to stand up for the “rights” of THEIR people.
The Southern Sudanese American Association, $100,000, AK
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Boat People, SOS, Inc., $100,000, AL
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Somali Bantu Association of Tucson, $197,688, AZ
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Horn of Africa Community in North America, $135,000, CA
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Lao Family Community Development Inc., $198,154, CA
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Merced Lao Family Community Inc., $183,381, CA
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Merced Lao Family Community Inc., $180,891, CA
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Colorado African Organization, $197,308, CO
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Pan African Association, $177,555, IL
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Center for Prevention of Hate Violence, $184,719, ME
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Minnesota African Women’s Association, Inc., $123,758, MN
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Karen Community of Minnesota, $169,000, MN
Montagnard Human Rights Organization, $181,390, NC
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Asian Community & Cultural Center, $125,000, NE
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Sauti Yetu Center for African Women, Inc., $107,590, NY
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Sauti Yetu Center for African Women, Inc., $152,056, NY
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Somali Bantu Association of San Antonio, $174,345, TX
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Somali Bantu Community of Greater Houston, $125, 695, TX
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Association of Africans Living in Vermont, $165,531, VT
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Pan African Community Association, $166,824, WI
Yikes! It gets worse, here is an up-to-date list of Ethnic groups (now called Ethnic self-help groups!) getting your money and fostering separation and nationalism (theirs!). Readers if these cities needed an organization to teach immigrants English (how about local junior colleges for this?) and how to access stuff (taxpayer goodies)—why isn’t the government funding one multicultural organization where all the disparate groups come together (get instruction on how to get food stamps, health care, education) and are taught American civic responsibility, history and patriotism?
In addition to the usual African and Asian groups listed above, this latest list funds Ethnic groups including those for Iraqis, Karen (Burmese), Bhutanese, Ukrainian, Ethiopian, Haitian, other Burmese, and Chaldean.
Much more in our category on ECBOs here.