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Life in Acadiana - Mature Thoughts
Posted on October 2, 2007
As I contemplate writing about how illegal immigration has affected my life, I look around in the area of Louisiana that I live in, known as Acadiana. There are relatively few Mexicans here, legal or illegal. As of late, we have seen a few at our supermarkets and such. Their demeanor is out of the ordinary only because they are not very friendly compared to the Cajuns and the English-speaking natives of the area. Our public and private facilities, rural or urban, have not been overwhelmed by their presence. Even our colleges and universities have not been figuratively buried by their numbers. Seemingly, their numbers are not so great as to affect our society—yet. Therefore, up to now, our jobs, wages and culture have not been adversely affected to the point of creating financial or cultural adversity to our society.
However, I feel there is an enigma surrounding the comparison between Mexican immigration and the immigration of my ancestors. I am of Canadian/French and Acadian/Cajun descent. My ancestors were forced to immigrate to Louisiana but entered this country LEGALLY. Mexicans are NOT forced to immigrate to the USA, but many are entering this country ILLEGALLY. It seems that Mexican immigrants, legal or illegal, are saturating our nation. For example, when automated telephone menus ask me to press “one” for English or “two” for Spanish, implying that Spanish is the only other language we should acknowledge, I am offended. What about French, the well-established language in this area? If this continues and we become a super-saturated nation, then we are in for a long haul.
This post was written by Mr. Willie Broussard
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Being the minority - Boomer Thoughts
Posted on October 1, 2007
I live less than two miles from a large Hispanic neighborhood. I shop at a Target where more than half the customers are Hispanic. I shop at a grocery store where I am the minority. I go to another grocery store that carries products I do not even recognize since they are specifically for the Hispanic community. My son went to a neighborhood school that was 60% Hispanic, 30% Black and 10% other.
But in these environments, I have met many good people who work hard and are family focused. They are respectful, well-mannered, care about their families and want their children to get an education. They want a better life than they could get where they were from. They understand that the life they are building in the
I truly believe that if conditions in their country were better, if they could find jobs, if they could get their children educated, they would not be here. Immigrants used to come to
I would like to end with a story about my son. In his kindergarten year, at the school previously mentioned, he made many friends. He did not care what their race was, if they were rich or poor, legal or illegal. I could tell by the way he talked and played with them. During the second semester of that year, I picked him up from school one day. As we were walking home, he said, “Daddy, did you know I’m white?”
These postings are my own and don’t necessarily reflect the opinion or position of Yankelovich, as content listed here is not read or approved by Yankelovich prior to posting.
This post was written by Larry Eppard
Making mistakes - Gen-X Thoughts
Posted on October 1, 2007
About a year ago, my wife was involved in a hit-and-run accident. Someone T-boned her at about 45 mph and then just kept going. Luckily, no one was hurt. It’s hard to understand why someone might not stop to check and see if the people in the car they hit were OK. Maybe they didn’t stop because they were on drugs - or because they would be in some sort of trouble if they had to present information to law enforcement - who knows for certain. Then a couple months ago, my wife was involved in another accident–side-swiped by someone in a pick-up, his utility trailer piled high with landscaping equipment. Again, luckily no one was hurt. Thankfully, this time the person stopped. My wife called me to come help out and mentioned that the person could not speak English very well. With adrenaline pumping and my super-protective instincts kicking in, I marched right up to the man and asked if he had insurance. Definitely not the most compassionate way to begin the dialogue on my part. I had assumed the worst - that because he could not speak English, he might not be as committed to the laws and customs of this country - which might mean he did not have insurance. I was wrong. He was a licensed in-state driver with excellent insurance - and a very nice fellow, I might add. We both reached a certain level of congeniality given the circumstances, everything worked out, we shook hands, and we went our separate ways. How does this tie to the topic of illegal immigration? It’s about mistakes. Everyone makes them, but in some cases illegal immigrants don’t have the same chances to make those mistakes that everyone else does. That’s not fair to either us or them. This leaves me a bit fearful and wary and ultimately, yes, a bit prejudiced. And that stinks for everyone.
These postings are my own and don’t necessarily reflect the opinion or position of Yankelovich, as content listed here is not read or approved by Yankelovich prior to posting.
This post was written by Andrew Cardman
Filed Under Gen-X | 3 Comments
Illegal is illegal - Echo Thoughts
Posted on October 1, 2007
When I received the question about how illegal immigration has affected my life, right off the bat, I came to the conclusion that illegal immigration has not really affected my life. I mean, it’s not like I watch the news or even subscribe to the newspaper, so it’s not something that comes up in every-day life, right? Well, not exactly….
After further consideration, I realized that it really has affected my life.
It was a hot summer day, and I was home for the summer working at the local university. I had only a half-hour lunch break, so I had become a frequent visitor of the local fast-food chains nearby. On this particular day, I went in and found myself in the midst of a group of Hispanic construction workers. One man was ordering for the entire group. All but one received their meals. As the meal-less man sat down on a bench to wait, his co-workers moved to the tables and chairs and began eating. When it was my turn to order, the cashier told me they were cooking more chicken and that it would be about 10 more minutes. So I sat down on the same bench to wait, just as the construction worker had done. Five minutes went by and the cashier looked both of us and said, “Can I get you anything else? The wait is going to be a bit longer than expected.” Unfortunately, the construction worker did not understand the question and continued to wait. I completely understood the question, but I, too, chose to wait. We finally got our meals, but by the time we did, his co-workers were waiting for him in the car. I felt so sorry for this guy… If only he had been able to communicate with the cashier, he would’ve been able to eat with his group. And if only I had paid attention in my Spanish class, I could have helped him understand what was going on.
As a fellow human being, my heart went out to this guy. As an American citizen, I wondered why someone who wanted to be in America would not learn how to speak English.
When I think back on that day, I realize that my only focus was on the communication barrier. It never even crossed my mind that this hard-working man, trying to get lunch, may have been here illegally. As I think about this more, it seems that one of the main functions of the government of the United States is to protect its citizens and protect its borders. However, I don’t think the government is protecting either because I believe the big corporations that hire illegal immigrants are paying the government officials who are “protecting and serving” us, so they ignore the law. Even though I feel bad for these illegal immigrants and their situations, I don’t think it’s fair to all the people trying to get into this country legally to legalize all the illegal immigrants here, now. No one should be able to gain by doing something that’s illegal.
Thus, my original thinking was flawed. It’s not that illegal immigration hasn’t affected my life; it’s that I believe I can’t do much about it.
These postings are my own and don’t necessarily reflect the opinion or position of Yankelovich, as content listed here is not read or approved by Yankelovich prior to posting.
This post was written by Valrie Horton
Filed Under Echo | 2 Comments