What do you think about the Slovenian minority in Austria and that they want town signs in their own language?

Question

What do you think about the Slovenian minority in Austria and that they want town signs in their own language?

Answer 1

We invite them to Toronto, where we celebrate ethnic diversity - we don't fear it:

http://spaces.msn.com/TheTravelzine-Toro...

Answer 2

The Slovens are not the problem: Haider is. (Sorry for potential insider talk, I am Austrian, too.)

EDIT: No, this not the same thing as the Mexicans in the US, at all. The Slovenian minority in Austria are all legal citizens, they've been here for generations. Our constitution gives them certain rights pertaining to their language and culture. They are, to repeat, most certainly not illegal immigrants.

Answer 3

Sounds a lot like what is happening in the United States.  We have a huge debate about hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants from Mexico and Latin America illegally entering our country; best estimate is that there are around 12 million (yes million) of them in the United States.  I don't know if any of this story gets any press in Austria, I can tell you, as an American, I haven't heard anything about your political issue and we don't, generally, hear anything about Austria; sad but many Americans confuse Austria and Australia (I have been to the Salzburg area many years ago as a teenager and was "concevied" in Australia while my father worked oversees for General Motors).  Part of our immigration debate with Mexico is economic; the debate is whether the illegals are helping the economy(by being a source of cheap labor) or hurting it (by taking away jobs that Americans/legal immigrants would do and be paid more for; companies that hire illegals are competing unfairly paying their workers less and driving other companies out of business; companies that hire illegals don't report them as working for them so they do not have to pay into their social security/taxes/retirement/healthcare/etc so the American taxpayers and legal immigrants end up paying much more in taxes, healthcare, education costs to teach the illegals immigrants children, etc, etc).  Part of our debate is legal; we have immigration laws that allow hundreds of thousands of immigrants, who want to assimilate to our culture, follow our laws, contribute to our economy, etc., from around the world to come to the US every year. These laws are designed to help regulate our economy, maintain our culture, and to protect our citizens by seeing who is entering our nation.  Not sure if it was broadcast in Austria, but a couple of weeks ago, we had tens/hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, waving the flags of their mother nations(and their supporters who benefit from them being in the country like their employers and certain religious and social organizations) demonstrating in most major cities across the United States charging the American people as racist for oppossing their illegal entry into our country (if you check out Mexico's immigration policy and what rights people that illegally enter their country have, Mexico is incredibly more restrictive) and, basically, demanded the same rights as the American citizens and the immigrants that followed our laws to enter the country. We had the Mexican President on American soil criticizing the American people as racist, "demanding" rights for the citizens of his country who "illegally" entered our nation because Mexico is very corrupt (and their human "rights" are more restricted, the opportunity for economic advancement is also seriously restricted in their home country), and, our United States Senate is trying to pass a bill with the (USA) Presidents approval basically agreeing to everything the illegals demanded. The vast majority of American citizens are outraged by this because it basically rewards the people that break our laws by refusing to follow our immigration procedures and, essentially, means the United States doesn't have a border since we continually reward the illegals (amnesty has been granted a couple times before to illegals and- surprise- this has only encouraged more illegal immigration). Also, it seems most illegals don't really want to assimilate.  They want all the benefits of being in the United States but refuse to adapt to its culture/mores; one sure example of this is they refuse to learn English and, rather than forcing them to learn the language of their new "home," businesses, schools, organizations, etc pandered to them- almost everything is now in Spanish and English in the United States.  I have travelled to many places and at least tried to know and speak some of the native language of anywhere I have travelled- including Spanish when I was in Mexico and Latin America.  In my opinion, it takes a lot of gall/nerve to come to another country seeking a better life then refuse to respect the culture/mores of such a gracious host nation- especially refusing to learn its' mother tongue.  The lesson from the United States is that if you give in to the Slovenian minority and do put the town signs in their language, you will be opening yourself to problems similar to what the US faces currently.  In our effort to be gracious hosts we made things too easy for our immigrants by not forcing them to learn English and other American customs/values and, instead, were too accomodating tp them.  As a result, others saw this genorosity and continually took more advantage of it until we got to our current political mess.  I think a similar problem is happening in France with Algerian immigrants Good Luck and if you want to preserve your country's heritage/culture you must be firm.

Edit:  the United States also welcomes ethnic diversity- contributions from immigrants all over the world shaped this great nation and we allow/invite tens/hundreds of thousands of people to immigrate to the US each year who are seeking economic opportunity and religious/cultural freedom.  Throughout our history, however, the various immigrant peoples have maintained many traditions from their homelands while fully embracing the challenges and customs needed to become an American.  My father is an example as a first generation American from Germany.  He couldn't speak English when he started kindergarden.  Did he or my grandparents demand schools teach him in German or businesses and social institiutions be forced to have German speaking employees/forms/signs/etc.???  No, he struggled to learn English and understand/embrace American customs while passing on some of his German heritage/culture to me; he became a German-American but he became an American like all the other immigrants from across the globe.  Learning to speak the language of this new, gracious host nation was probably the most important step in assimilating to this strange new culture for all immigrants.  The illegal immigrants we have living in the US who refuse to learn English and demand everything in Spanish really do not want to seem to assimilate into American culture and do not want to become Mexican-Americans and, thus, Americans; they want to be and consider themselves to be Mexicans living in America.  True I do not know anything about the Slovenian minority in Austria.  I will presume that the Slovenian immigrants came to Austria seeking economic opportunity, religious and cultural freedom, etc. just like anybody who has immigrated to the United States (legally or not).  My experience is simply that those who refuse to learn/use the native language of the country they are living for whatever reason,  are those that do not wish to (fully) assimilate into the mainstream culture.