Petercat-I can’t help thinking, in the back of my mind, that clans “immigrating as a whole” would actually result in “integrating” with the imperial community. Just witness the migration from 3rd world countries in today’s society. They DO NOT integrate, They form enclaves of their culture, and do not become Americans. And also, Misha’s (and Teresa’s) invitation seems to imply that individual catians emigrating to the empire would not occur, yet you have already revealed previously that some cats go their own way and are not clan oriented.
Mischa meant that immigration would not be common, not that it wouldn’t happen at all. Many will come as students.
As for the clans, they will integrate with the Empire, while keeping their identity as clans within the modern society. Sort of like families (should) do today, accepting the modern culture while retaining their internal structure as a family within that culture.
Yes, many of the ones with restless feet will come, although they will have to understand that the untamed lands will be too dangerous for them to wander alone. There are, of course, some areas of non-Imperial land that have been tamed by their residents, as the Empire is soon to learn.
I think that most folks immigrating here still DO integrate to greater or lesser extent. From where I sit (in south Texas) the only group who don’t (WON’T truth be told) integrate is Muslims and that is because they – pretty much one and all – consider themselves to be superior to the rest of us. They may – some of them, at least – adopt our mode of dress somewhat but they still consider themselves superior. When I was first driving for the school district in early ’18, I had two Ethiopian younglings in my van and they didn’t hesitate to correct me or call me down or give me orders. Of course I pretty much ignored them. Had to or I’d be reported for some sort of racist act or other.
I don’t believe that Catians immigrating to Earth would refuse to integrate into imperial society. There would have to be some adjustments since they are not human and don’t live as long as humans but over all I would not expect trouble. At least we wouldn’t have to worry about 3rd generation Cats born on Earth still not reading and writing English unlike a large number of Mexican immigrants who were illiterate in English even though their grandparents (at least one) were born here.
Wasn’t always that way. In fact, this is a very recent behavior. A generation ago immigrants were proud of their heritage, but also proud to be Americans. I have many friends who forbade their children speaking anything but English at home.
I worked with a guy like that. His dad was of German descent and English was the only language spoken in that household. It resulted in some odd situations arising. For a few months between R&D Engineering Tech jobs I worked in a little microcomputer store. That was when Richard (the guy I mentioned above) and I worked together. Richard LOOKED totally Mexican while I look about as bolillo (an Hispanic slang term for caucasians) as you get. One day it was just Richard, the receptionist and myself in the store/shop and Richard took a phone call. When he got off the phone he looked up at me (I was standing) and asked, “Bill, how do you spell Hay-sus? (with a pretty thick Texas drawl) Now you have to picture this in your mind. Here’s this guy who looks about as Mexican as a person can, looking up at the obvious gringo and asking how to spell “Jesus” (which is pronounced “Hay-sus” in Spanish). I kinda looked at him and at the receptionist and said, “You asking me?” to which he replied, “Yeah.” I looked down at him, shook my head a little and replied, “Jay-Ee-Ess-You-Ess”. He looked up at me and said “No shit?” and I replied, “No shit, Richard.” The receptionist who had been watching the spectacle of an obviously Mexican guy asking a total gringo how to spell a Spanish word and the utter incongruity of the situation got her to laughing. In fact she got to laughing so hard she laughed herself out of her chair. I guess you really CANNOT go solely by appearances.
I had a friend like that. He was a son of a US serviceman, half Ainu – the aborigines of Japan who were there before the Japanese invaded and have historically not been treated well. He told me about going to Cancun on vacation once and a local coming up to him and speaking rapidly. He responded “No hable español” and the guy stopped, glared at him, and stomped off muttering. He was sure the guy thought he was lying, and foolishly since he obviously WAS Hispanic.
Not without fixing the whole mess. As is, it produces an underclass of non-citizens who can’t become citizens and have to work for low wages as illegals. NEITHER party’s representatives — and they represent their parties, not their constituents — want to fix this because both are making political hay off it.
My kids went to school with a family of kids, father from US and mother from Haiti, and each parent made a point of speaking (mostly) their native tongue to the kids while they were home. Kids were fluent in English AND French as first languages, and considered ‘experts’ who said that was impossible to be a bit … challenged. Great kids, good students and friendly. And yes, the mother spoke English in public.
Petercat-I can’t help thinking, in the back of my mind, that clans “immigrating as a whole” would actually result in “integrating” with the imperial community. Just witness the migration from 3rd world countries in today’s society. They DO NOT integrate, They form enclaves of their culture, and do not become Americans. And also, Misha’s (and Teresa’s) invitation seems to imply that individual catians emigrating to the empire would not occur, yet you have already revealed previously that some cats go their own way and are not clan oriented.
Mischa meant that immigration would not be common, not that it wouldn’t happen at all. Many will come as students.
As for the clans, they will integrate with the Empire, while keeping their identity as clans within the modern society. Sort of like families (should) do today, accepting the modern culture while retaining their internal structure as a family within that culture.
Yes, many of the ones with restless feet will come, although they will have to understand that the untamed lands will be too dangerous for them to wander alone. There are, of course, some areas of non-Imperial land that have been tamed by their residents, as the Empire is soon to learn.
I think that most folks immigrating here still DO integrate to greater or lesser extent. From where I sit (in south Texas) the only group who don’t (WON’T truth be told) integrate is Muslims and that is because they – pretty much one and all – consider themselves to be superior to the rest of us. They may – some of them, at least – adopt our mode of dress somewhat but they still consider themselves superior. When I was first driving for the school district in early ’18, I had two Ethiopian younglings in my van and they didn’t hesitate to correct me or call me down or give me orders. Of course I pretty much ignored them. Had to or I’d be reported for some sort of racist act or other.
I don’t believe that Catians immigrating to Earth would refuse to integrate into imperial society. There would have to be some adjustments since they are not human and don’t live as long as humans but over all I would not expect trouble. At least we wouldn’t have to worry about 3rd generation Cats born on Earth still not reading and writing English unlike a large number of Mexican immigrants who were illiterate in English even though their grandparents (at least one) were born here.
Wasn’t always that way. In fact, this is a very recent behavior. A generation ago immigrants were proud of their heritage, but also proud to be Americans. I have many friends who forbade their children speaking anything but English at home.
Exactly. My mother refused to teach us Russian. My father’s native tongue was Irish English, so it never came up.
I worked with a guy like that. His dad was of German descent and English was the only language spoken in that household. It resulted in some odd situations arising. For a few months between R&D Engineering Tech jobs I worked in a little microcomputer store. That was when Richard (the guy I mentioned above) and I worked together. Richard LOOKED totally Mexican while I look about as bolillo (an Hispanic slang term for caucasians) as you get. One day it was just Richard, the receptionist and myself in the store/shop and Richard took a phone call. When he got off the phone he looked up at me (I was standing) and asked, “Bill, how do you spell Hay-sus? (with a pretty thick Texas drawl) Now you have to picture this in your mind. Here’s this guy who looks about as Mexican as a person can, looking up at the obvious gringo and asking how to spell “Jesus” (which is pronounced “Hay-sus” in Spanish). I kinda looked at him and at the receptionist and said, “You asking me?” to which he replied, “Yeah.” I looked down at him, shook my head a little and replied, “Jay-Ee-Ess-You-Ess”. He looked up at me and said “No shit?” and I replied, “No shit, Richard.” The receptionist who had been watching the spectacle of an obviously Mexican guy asking a total gringo how to spell a Spanish word and the utter incongruity of the situation got her to laughing. In fact she got to laughing so hard she laughed herself out of her chair. I guess you really CANNOT go solely by appearances.
I had a friend like that. He was a son of a US serviceman, half Ainu – the aborigines of Japan who were there before the Japanese invaded and have historically not been treated well. He told me about going to Cancun on vacation once and a local coming up to him and speaking rapidly. He responded “No hable español” and the guy stopped, glared at him, and stomped off muttering. He was sure the guy thought he was lying, and foolishly since he obviously WAS Hispanic.
Yes! I guess it comes back to controlled vs uncontrolled immigration. One produces Americans, the other produces balkanization.
“One produces Americans, the other produces
balkanizationDEMOCRAT voters.There. Fixed it for ya.
Thanks!!!
Not without fixing the whole mess. As is, it produces an underclass of non-citizens who can’t become citizens and have to work for low wages as illegals. NEITHER party’s representatives — and they represent their parties, not their constituents — want to fix this because both are making political hay off it.
My kids went to school with a family of kids, father from US and mother from Haiti, and each parent made a point of speaking (mostly) their native tongue to the kids while they were home. Kids were fluent in English AND French as first languages, and considered ‘experts’ who said that was impossible to be a bit … challenged. Great kids, good students and friendly. And yes, the mother spoke English in public.