OPINIONS
BILLY WILDER ACADEMY NOMINATION
I
n today’s U.S., citizenship’s import ance is quickly slipping away. Over the decades, the citizenship test has been watered down to the most basic questions with three of the four answers obviously incorrect. Example: “What is the one promise you make when you become a U.S. citizen?” A) Never travel outside the U.S., B) Disobey U.S. laws, C) give up loyalty to other countries and D) don’t defend the Constitution and U.S. laws. Time was that the citizenship test required a reasonable knowledge of U.S. history and civics.Questions about the Federalist Papers and the amendments to the Constitution were standard. No more. In fact, the Biden administration has put the very concept of citizenship under siege. Just three months after his inauguration, Biden ordered federal agencies to drop “assimilation,” and use “integration.” Assimilation, the process of absorbing new facts and of responding to new situations to conform with the new norm, has long been most immigrants’ goal. Banning the word from the lexicon makes little sense. For new immigrants, assimilation, mastering English and obtaining citizenship are essential for a fulfilling life. Without assimilation, conversational English skills and citizenship, most immigrants will be doomed to low-paying jobs, and will never experience the personal and professional joys that they ostensibly came to America to achieve. Compare the early 20 th century to today. In a long-ago interview with a Hollywood-based journalist, Austrian-born Billy Wilder said that shortly after he arrived in the U.S. in 1933 at age 27 he stayed in his hotel room, listening to the radio to learn English. While his fellow ex-pats met at coffee shops to drink espresso, eat pastries, speak German and reminisce about the old days, Wilder was determined to assimilate. Wilder said he knew he would never return to Europe and was determined to live out his life as an American.
16
I’M ITALIAN - SPRING - 2022
After earning multiple Academy Award nominations and winning six Oscars, Wilder died in Beverly Hills at age 95. Biden must encourage, not discourage, assimilation. With the U.S.’s legal and illegal immigrant population in November 2021 at a record high 46.5 million , assimilation is critical. More than 70 ethnic identity congressional caucuses, each lobbying for their individual objectives, underline the need for the U.S. to unify, and to progress harmoniously toward shared ideals. That road, as Robert Frost might have written, is not being traveled.
