"OurAsians Will
BeatTheir Asians"

Reprint from 'Made in America' by Bill Bryson 'An Informal History of the English Language in the United States," William Morrow and Company (also an excellent book about the history of America, not taught in general school or college classes )

America is richer today than ever before, and tomorrow it will be richer still. Consider the facts. Between 1980 and 1991, the American economy grew by almost a third. Between 1986 and 1991, American exports of iron and steel rose by 322 percent, of clothing by 260 percent, of pharmaceuticals by 126 percent, of electrical machinery and telecommunications equipment by 122 percent, and so on down the line. Altogether, between 1986 and 1991 the volume of American exports increased by 80 percent, and its share of world trade rose from 14 percent to 18 percent. And that is just visible trade. In almost every area of the service sector that is traded abroad - in fast food, entertainment, computer software, consultancy, construction, courier services, you name it - American supremacy is unchallenged.

At the time of writing, the United States was the world's largest exporter and, by almost any measure, the most productive country. Despite the rise of Japan as an economic power, the average American worker still produces almost twice as much per hour as the average worker in Japan. Moreover, manufacturing productivity throughout the 1980's grew in America at a rate of 4.3 per cent, well ahead of most other developed countries. The average American home has two telephones, two televisions (with cable hookup), a VCR, a microwave, and 1.4 cars. By almost any measure of wealth, America remains preeminent.

One important way it has maintained this preeminence is by remaining a melting pot. In the 1980's, the United States took more immigrants than in any other period in its history apart from the peak first decade of this century. It has become truly a multiracial society. By 2000, only about half of Americans entering the work force will be native-born and of European stock. By 2020, on present trends, the proportion of nonwhite and Hispanic American will have doubled, while the white population will have remained almost unchanged. By 2050, the number of Asian Americans will have quintupled.

Many see this as a threat. They note that already the most popular radio station in Los Angeles is a Spanish-language one, that Spanish is the mother tongue of half of the two million inhabitants of greater Miami, that 11 percent of Americans speak a language other than English at home.

In fact, there is no reason to suppose that America is any more threatened by immigration today than it was a century ago. For one thing, only 6 percent of Americans are foreign-born, a far smaller proportion than in Britain, France, Germany, or most other developed countries. Immigration is for the most part concentrated in a few urban centers. Though some visitors to those cities may find it vexing that their waitress or cab driver does not always speak colloquial English with the assurance of a native-born American, it is also no accident that those cities where immigration is most profound - Miami, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco - are generally far more vibrant than those places like Detroit, St. Louis, and Philadelphia where it is not. Nor is it any accident that immigrants are a disproportionate presence in many of those industries - pharmaceuticals, medical research, entertainment, and many others- that are most vital to America's continued prosperity. Up to one-third of the engineers in California's Silicon Valley, for instance, were born in Asia. As one observer has predicted: "America will win because our Asians will beat their Asians."

Quite apart from the consideration that foreign cultures introduce a welcome measure of diversity into American life, no evidence has ever been produced to show that immigrants today, any more than in the past persist with their native tongues. A study by the Rand Corporation in 1985 found that 95 percent of the children of Mexican immigrants in America spoke English, and that half of these spoke only English. According to another survey, more than 90 percent of Hispanics, citizens and non-citizens alike, believe that residents of the United States should learn English.

If history is anything to go by, then three things about America's immigrants are as certain today as they ever were: that they will learn English, that they will become Americans, and that the country will be stronger for it And if that is not a good thing, I don't know what is.

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