IN THE MAIL: Michael Barone’s latest on immigration, a new edition of his The New Americans: How the Melting Pot Can Work Again. He makes a case for fairly open immigration, but with strong pressure toward assimilation, as in previous waves of migration. The question is whether that combination is possible. Excerpt:

The main threats to assimilation come not from the immigratns themselves, but from American elites who flinch at the mention of Americanization and who find European-style multiculturalism more appealing. There are educational elites, who support so-called bilingual education — which in practice is often neither bilingual nor education — in which children are taught in bad Spanish and kept from mastering the English language, the first rung on the ladder of upward mobility. There are the political elites, who persist in requiring foreign language ballots even though immigrants who wish to become citizens are required to show that they have learned English. There are the governmental elites, who allow Wahhabi imams to serve as prison chaplains and preachers of terrorism to teach in Middle Eastern studies programs. There are the academic elites, who pride themeslves on admitting as a studet at Yale a spokesman for the murderous Taliban regime. There are the highly educated moral-relativist elites, who regard our civilization as a virus, and hostile immigrants and multiculturalism as the cure. But America has better traditions and a history of proven merit in assimilating immigrants.

I think the immigration debate will heat up again in the fall, and I hope that this book sparks some discussion.

UPDATE: In a related item, Cathy Seipp has thoughts on the media, immigration, and Islam.