Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: William Hyde <wthyde1953@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
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Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2025 16:01:49 -0400
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Scott Dorsey wrote:
> Lynn McGuire  <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Higher immigration will not fix this problem as most of the immigrants
>> are uneducated and cannot speak the majority language, English.
> 
> What does that have to do with being able to pay into the social security
> system?
> 
> My grandparents were uneducated and my grandmother never did learn English
> even after seventy years in the country.  But she ran a cheese factory and
> became a successful businessperson.
> 
>> It used to be that we allowed immigration to the USA for college
>> graduates and English competency only.  We still allow about 1.3 million
>> people per year to immigrant legally to the USA, mostly family of
>> existing citizens.
> 
> When was this?  It certainly wasn't when my grandparents came here.

Asimov's parents did not speak English nor did either have a degree.

Neither, I believe, did the parents of Poul Anderson.

ISTR that Hugo Gernsback spoke relatively little English when he arrived 
in the US circa 1900.

Staying vaguely within SF boundaries, Arnold Schwarzenegger also spoke 
little English when he arrived in the US.

A brief google search shows a web page devoted to people who did not 
speak English on arrival in the US but did well.

I've met a number of successful people in the US who have been there for 
decades and barely speak English (though in one case I've been told he 
barely speaks his native language, either).

Lynn is referring to an alternate timeline in which, for example, Trump 
wasn't born rich.  That sort of thing.

William Hyde