Speech #1040191404

Mr. Chairman. I rise today in opposition to the Canady amendment to require English proficiency for immigrants arriving under the diversity Immigrant program and under the employmentbased classification. Never before has English proficiency been required of immigrants. and It is not necessary now. Immigrants who come to this country are strongly motivated to learn English. because they know that their economic livelihood depends upon it. Immigrant parents Instill in their children a pride In their native culture but they also encourage their children to learn English because as parents they know too well that their childrens educational and employment opportunities will hinge on their ability to master the English language. We have seen that there Is an enormous demand for English classes. Nationwide. Englishasasecondlanguage classes serve 1.8 million people each year. In fact. immigrants are very motivated to learn English as they even wait on waiting lists for ESL classes. I worry that this amendment will have a discriminatory effect as a backdoor way of excluding certain groups of immigrants such as those from Spanishspeaking countries. as well as from Africa and Asian countries where the native language is not English. In 1990. Congress rejected a similar proposal that would have given preference to Englishspeaking immigrants in the diversity lottery because of concerns that the amendment was designed to favor immigrants from certain parts of the world over others. Furthermore. I believe that this amendment is not favorable to the interests of business in this country. Employmentbased immigration is designed to allow businesses to bring in limited numbers of highly skilled workers. If the employer believes that a future employee has the skills to do the job. the Government should not impose additional requirements.