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warch · 05-24-2005, 03:53 PM

Yes, we value our immigrant bootstraps, right?

So is it cost effective to have informed citizens, informed voters? ...realizing that legal immigrants, US citizens might have various levels of English language fluency at any moment, is it worth the money to make sure they can better understand the issues they are voting on, or maybe know what immunizations to get for their kids in public school? Its sounds to me like a question of equal access.

I support the public funding of ballot translations not only on the grounds of access but also on the grounds of a good investment in a more informed group of voters. I dont think it discourages the learning of English, even if those kids will still need to translate for grandma. It helps engage new immigrants more immediately in a larger community.

We also have a lot of Hmong citizens around here that are exempt from the English proficiency requirement- such that it is, mostly due to their old age and dedication to the US during Vietnam. Hmong translations are found for most public documents.

05-24-2005, 03:53 PM	#8
warch lurkin old school Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Minnesota Posts: 2,796	Yes, we value our immigrant bootstraps, right? So is it cost effective to have informed citizens, informed voters? ...realizing that legal immigrants, US citizens might have various levels of English language fluency at any moment, is it worth the money to make sure they can better understand the issues they are voting on, or maybe know what immunizations to get for their kids in public school? Its sounds to me like a question of equal access. I support the public funding of ballot translations not only on the grounds of access but also on the grounds of a good investment in a more informed group of voters. I dont think it discourages the learning of English, even if those kids will still need to translate for grandma. It helps engage new immigrants more immediately in a larger community. We also have a lot of Hmong citizens around here that are exempt from the English proficiency requirement- such that it is, mostly due to their old age and dedication to the US during Vietnam. Hmong translations are found for most public documents. Last edited by warch; 05-24-2005 at 04:10 PM.