Though it had been planned a year in advance, the speech given in the forum of the Texas Tech Law school Tuesday afternoon was coincidentally pertinent to current events.
Roger Clegg, president and general counsel with the Center for Equal Opportunity, spoke on "Immigration and Assimilation."
The presentation was hosted by the Tech chapter of the Federalist Society.
Clegg outlined 10 rules he believes should be heeded for effective assimilation.
"I am comfortable with relatively high levels of immigration … I believe a country's economy needs lots of immigrants," he said. "I think there's a way we can have our cake and eat it too, and that's high levels of immigration plus assimilation. I also think there are certain things we expect everyone in the U.S. not to do."
Clegg's said his first rule, "don't disparage other ethnicities," is important for those living in the U.S. to remember.
"If someone comes to the U.S. and plays by the rules, we should be very welcoming of them," he said.
His second rule was "don't expect preferential treatment." This was followed by rule No. 3: "Don't carry historical grudges."
"If your neighbor is a Turkish-American, he's still an American," Clegg said. "You shouldn't dislike him just because he's from Turkey."
Rule four stated immigrants should "respect women." He went on to say that in the United States, women are not second-class citizens and should not be treated as such by anyone.
Clegg's fifth guideline was that immigrants should "learn to speak English."
"It is very important that we be able to communicate with each other," he said. "It's too late in the game to have a national language other than English, and you need to be able to speak English to succeed economically."
Rule No. 6 suggests that immigrants "be polite." Clegg jokingly said he believes this rule is not as hard to follow for Texans as it was for a group he addressed in New York.
"There are just certain social customs and you need to learn those and treat people accordingly," he said. "But that is a two-way street. Sometimes people act rude to one another for no reason other than race, and that's not right."
The seventh rule Clegg outlined for effective assimilation was "don't break the law."
"That's just a general good rule for getting ahead," he said.
In rule eight, Clegg suggested immigrants not have children out of wedlock because this can lead to economic problems.
"If I had a magic wand and I could fix any problem in America, I would change the fact that seven out of 10 African Americans today are born out of wedlock," he said. "I think that's the biggest social problem facing America."
Rule No. 9 encourages immigrants to "work and study hard." He said working hard is not something that needs to be taught to most Mexican immigrants.
"The idea that studying hard is somehow selling out or acting white is a recipe for disaster," Clegg said.
The last rule for effective assimilation Clegg discussed was that one should "be proud of being an American."
"If someone comes to American and does what they should do, we should treat them with respect and as an American," he said paraphrasing the words of President Theodore Roosevelt. "If we don't then we ourselves are not being American."
Law professor Calvin Lewis said he agreed with most of Clegg's arguments.
"I don't think there's anything I would particularly change," he said. "I just think there's a few other things we might look at. If we could take some of the emotion and lack of education out of what Congress is currently doing, it would be of better aid."
When asked what he believed the solution was to the current immigration issues, Clegg offered three general statements.
"We've got to do a better job of policing our borders. We've got to improve the legal immigration process. We need to encourage the assimilation process," he said. "Assimilation for some people is like a dirty word, because people think it's like we're asking people to deny their ethnic heritage."
Clegg expressed some worry that more conversations about assimilation are not taking place.
"These rules I've outlined are all about getting along and getting ahead. They are things that all Americans should do - whether you've been here 100 years or 100 days," he said.
Third-year law student from Tyler, Shane McGuire echoed Clegg's offered solutions to the current immigration issues.
"We've got to do a better job of securing our borders, but I don't think we can just kick people out that live here and have jobs," he said.
Clegg said he has given the speech before to audiences of varied ethnicities and never has received hostile feedback from minorities.
Be the first to comment on this article!