Refugees - have they been a problem?

[Robert]

Seems to be in Tenessee.

https://archive.is/c0GBJ

The report found that a total of 21,648 charges were filed against illegal migrants among 11,344 cases between January 1 and December 31 of 2025, averaging nearly 1000 reports per month. However, there are likely even more because one county (Bledsoe) did not submit its data in time for the report to be filed.

Migrants representing a total of 119 different countries were cited in the reports where country of origin was obtainable.

The categories of crimes revealed a shocking toll suffered by the state’s citizens at the hands of illegal migrants.

Among the categories of crime, the report includes:
2,183 violent offenses
41 homicides
1,592 assaults
145 sexual offenses
11 child rapes
40 aggravated kidnappings
2,920 DUIs
5,318 cases of driving without a license or on suspended/or revoked
966 Carjackings
36 Felony firearms offenses
66 Assaults on police or first responders

[JohnH]

I find it questionable to claim “immigration is always good”, just like “immigration is always bad” is not a valid claim. It also depends on the specific people who are immigrating.

It may be much more tolerable for the wealthy or privileged, who enjoy having new cuisines of restaurants open. But it may be very difficult for poorer folks like how Valerie described her family’s background who have to face vandalism, noise, and the negative economic impact shown in the Economist article. Lower wages, harder to find a job, and higher cost of housing hurt the poor but benefit the wealthy, who like paying lower wages and collecting bigger rents.

[JohnH]

It amazes me how we look down on those who speak broken English and yet we seem to forget that they are learning a 2nd and for some a 3rd or 4th language. We have many born and raised Americans who speak very poor English yet we look down on those trying to learn a 2nd language. And if you have ever tried to teach English- which I have in ESL classes- it is a very difficult language to teach and even more so to learn. So. many broken rules, so many words that are the same spelling but different pronunciation but different meaning or same pronunciation but different meaning.

Overall my experience with the different immigration populations in our area has been positive.

If I moved to another country (which I did when I was 18), I expect to be looked down on and to permanently seem like a foreigner due to my lack of ability to communicate natively.

Incidentally apparently English is easy to learn since it has more people learning it than any other language. Perhaps it actually isn’t “very difficult” to learn.

Overall it is entirely reasonable for people who live in an area to expect visitors and guests to choose to learn how to communicate with them. It is virtually impossible to expect Americans to learn every language of the latest people group who move in when the group of people changes every few years. An immigrant friend of mine can’t communicate with more recent arrivals from Central America since they don’t speak Spanish. America is simply not a polyglot society. If that appeals to you, I suggest migrating to the Balkans.

[QuietlyListening]

Incidentally apparently English is easy to learn since it has more people learning it than any other language. Perhaps it actually isn’t “very difficult” to learn.

Just because people are learning it doesn't mean it is easy. Have you ever tried to teach someone to speak English - not just a word or 2.

Overall it is entirely reasonable for people who live in an area to expect visitors and guests to choose to learn how to communicate with them. It is virtually impossible to expect Americans to learn every language of the latest people group who move in when the group of people changes every few years.

This isn't about whether someone learns English or not- it is the way many people in this country treat people who are leaning the language. I'm sorry- it is not an easy language to learn. Even if many are learning it.

[JohnH]

Incidentally apparently English is easy to learn since it has more people learning it than any other language. Perhaps it actually isn’t “very difficult” to learn.

Just because people are learning it doesn't mean it is easy. Have you ever tried to teach someone to speak English - not just a word or 2.

Overall it is entirely reasonable for people who live in an area to expect visitors and guests to choose to learn how to communicate with them. It is virtually impossible to expect Americans to learn every language of the latest people group who move in when the group of people changes every few years.

This isn't about whether someone learns English or not- it is the way many people in this country treat people who are leaning the language. I'm sorry- it is not an easy language to learn. Even if many are learning it.

It’s possible to both be kind to people you can’t communicate with yet simultaneously say we should expect people who want permission to enter and stay in America to be able to communicate adequately.

I don’t see why immigrants can’t learn English well before they arrive.

[Ernie]

Europe has taken in a great deal of migrants but is not currently having “the most intense period of economic growth” it has ever seen.

This is the result of a management problem, not an immigrant problem.

[Ernie]

I don’t see why immigrants can’t learn English well before they arrive.

You may not be able to see why, but if you were to walk a mile in the moccasins of many immigrants, I think the why would become very clear.

[Ernie]

It’s possible to both be kind to people you can’t communicate with yet simultaneously say we should expect people who want permission to enter and stay in America to be able to communicate adequately.

That is one perspective. But it again begs the question, Why didn't the English and Dutch and French learn Algonquian, Iroquoian, Siouan, and Muskogean when they came to the new world?
And why didn't they learn these new languages before coming to the new world? They could have.

[Soloist]

Incidentally apparently English is easy to learn since it has more people learning it than any other language. Perhaps it actually isn’t “very difficult” to learn.

Just because people are learning it doesn't mean it is easy. Have you ever tried to teach someone to speak English - not just a word or 2.

Overall it is entirely reasonable for people who live in an area to expect visitors and guests to choose to learn how to communicate with them. It is virtually impossible to expect Americans to learn every language of the latest people group who move in when the group of people changes every few years.

This isn't about whether someone learns English or not- it is the way many people in this country treat people who are leaning the language. I'm sorry- it is not an easy language to learn. Even if many are learning it.

Wife: Spanish is one of the easier languages to learn from English, but even with hard-core study, it takes a while. I did three years in high school, lost a lot of it, and hoping to get to level 60 on Duolingo pretty soon, but when I use it, it still ends up being a lot of Spanglish between me and the other person, and random signs, because of course they can understand sign language. This is from someone who has previous experience, and might have an easier time of learning languages than other people, even though figuring out mechanics or hands on stuff is very difficult for me. I attempted Arabic and was learning some of the letters and some basic stuff, but I can barely even hope to make some of those sounds, and it’s taken me decades just to occasionally roll my R’s if I’m lucky.

Since we are talking about refugees, most of them cannot afford to do Duolingo Super plan while they’re hanging out in camp, and it’s actually not that great anyway, if you don’t already have some idea of the language/grammar/letter sounds. A lot of them might not have even gone to school in their own language. The lady I was talking about barely knew English when she got here, but she did get it figured out soon, enough, and her mom probably took longer. They did now a couple other European languages though.

Pablo Yoder his family studied Spanish before they moved to Costa Rica and they had no idea how to actually say the words properly, and it was definitely a rough transition at first. I personally think immersion is one of the easier ways to actually get good at a Language and wish I could find more opportunities for it. Spanish a cappella songs that I already know in English help, and a lot of them are posted on CloudVeil. One thing I’m thinking about doing is the free online Bible course to get the life of Jesus MP3s from La Historia Preferida (your story hour).

[Soloist]

Wife: random experience I’ve had with immigrants that I have lived near. Probably not refugees, but it’s not like I ask peoples immigration status. One family waited until it started dumping rain at a roofing party; water was running down between our porch and our front door, and then super Mario came to the rescue with his tarp and it was pretty epic. They all seemed nice, and the lady would occasionally send tamales (did not previously know the difference between Mexican tamales and nicamales that you find in Central America ) or some weird fruit salad that looks like salsa. We actually had one of them come over and ask us about a Spanish-speaking church, and we had one of our friends talk to them on the phone that I actually knew Spanish well enough to have a decent conversation. I found out about another place later, and worked on my Spanish more, but when I finally got over there, I realized that somebody else was living there from a different country, which was kind of embarrassing, but they’re pretty nice too, and have a cute little baby. The mom and her baby say hi to us occasionally. Both families seemed pretty decent, and at least from my take on it, don’t seem like the type that are heavy into drugs/gangs/ect.

On the other hand, I have a relative who is half Hispanic, did not actually find out about his dad until tweens/teens, and got into gangs and drugs and stuff and one of his relatives was actually killed in a turf war (as far as I know he’s been out of gangs for quite a while, but still has a drug problem even after seeing other people overdose). That’s a really sad situation, and obviously stuff like that does exist, but isn’t necessarily the case for every single immigrant. Neither of these families give me the same vibe at all.