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Comment by middleclick | Hacker News Reader

Another issue is that some of these rich kids usually don't integrate and have no desire to do so. They just milk the system. I studied at UBC. You will be surprised how many students can't speak basic conversational English.

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I went to school with kids from HK who arrived and didn't speak English very well. After a short time their English improved substantially, and after a couple of years, frankly, many of them could write essays with better grammar than many of the caucasian native English speakers in the class.

Instead of criticizing immigrants for being different, how about we welcome them, support them, and make a better home for everyone.

Part of the reason it appears that they don't want to "integrate" is because so many people around them are instantly hostile.

Be welcoming and you will be surprised at what you will learn about the world (and about yourself).

I am the product of immigration as well so I am not sure how anything I said makes it seem like I was not welcoming. Pointing out that there are issues with integration is not the same thing as being a racist. Has our discourse come to a level that one can't even talk about these things?

    Pointing out that there are issues with integration
    is not the same thing as being a racist

It's interesting to note that @plg didn't use the word "racist".

No, but plg did refer to the locals as "caucasians" before calling them hostile and unwelcoming.

This is exactly the sort of argument made against Italians, Irish, and numerous others that have come to the U.S. It's pretty gross.

Pointing out that some of these students - not only limited to Chinese - do not integrate is not the same as being racist. That's quite a hyperbole.

But do they have to learn the local language when they don't plan to stay there indefinitely?

Interestingly for the most part these European immigrants refused to teach their children born in the USA their native languages because they were that concerned with integration.

I think it is sad that languages were not passed on but it seems that later waves of immigrants or even some groups as a whole (e.g.: Chinese, Latin Americans) are more concerned about preserving their native languages in their new country.

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