Speech #930201041

I sponsored legislation of this nature in 1967. My bill (at that time H.R. 3596) passed the House in December 1967. but failed to become law when the Senate did not act on it. I commend the Immigration Subcommittee for its diligent concern and its undiminished efforts to secure passage of this amenCment in both Houses of Congress. Though the grup we are hoping to help is a distinctly limited onequalifications of 50 years of age and 20 years residence make the affected group a minority among our immigrant populationit is nonetheless a group much in need of our assistance and the bill speaks to a problem much in need of recognition and redress. I would imagine that most of us have had some experience at learning a foreign language. Normally that experience is an academic oneone which. significantly. comes within the youthful. malleable stages of our mental development. Linguists tell us that languages are most readily assimilated by the very young. Those of us who come from districts with sizable immigrant populations know firsthand the difficulties confronting immigrants trying to learn a new language. While their children seem to absorb the new languages slang and rhythms as well as its structures and idioms. the older immigrant must struggle to master even the bare rudiments of the new tongue. This is a natural and expected phenomenon. Language is a tool. a process. By the time an individual reaches adulthood. language is a complex tool. It is an infrastructure whose very complexity resists discarding in favor of a new system where the learner is in a very real sense a child again. Given the all too human barriers against achieving fluency in English among older immigrants. I would urge the House again approve this amendment. We know now that the inability of some of our older immigrants. those who enter the United States after the completion of their formal education and have. like so many of us. no particular gift for languages. to absorb a new language is characteristic of us all. I urge each of the Members to consider his own chances of learning a new language at this point in his life were he to be placed in a similar situation. This amendment we have before us is a simple and limited one. Its principle has already been acknowledged by the passage of Public Law 82414. I urge you now to extend its understanding and compassion to our older immigrants born after 1902. These immigrants are mature. In midlife they have chosen to break with a life they knew well and begin anew. Their commitment and courage I commend. I hope it will not go unfulfilled because the technical skills of mastering a new language have eluded them. With 20 years residence in the United States. these immigrants have not only seen. felt. and enjoyed American lifethey have enriched it. I urge you to grant them exemptions from the language requirement and permit them to become what they have made so many sacrifices forAmerican citizens.