Peter D. Salins

Peter D. Salins argues in the following viewpoint that immigrants to the United States may have spoken a language other than English at home, ate ethnic foods, and celebrated their ethnic heritage, but they proudly considered themselves and their children to be Americans. Americans welcomed immigrants if they spoke English, took pride in their American identity and American ideals, and worked hard, he asserts. Furthermore, Salins maintains, the United States helped immigrants assimilate by offering them full citizenship, which gave them all the rights and privileges of being an American, and by educating their children in free public schools. Salins is a professor of urban affairs and planning at Hunter College of the City University of New York and is a senior fellow of the Manhattan Institute. He is also the author of Assimilation...