Bailey's Crossroads, S. Arlington, and Spanish-speaking illegals (Washington: jobs, sick)

[Alanboy395]

I work as a Sales Associate in a store in Bailey's Crossroads. I'm sick of illegal immagriants coming into my store asking if any other employees speak spanish. With all due respect these illegals don't know they are in the US which most americans aren't fluent in spanish. It is sad in Virginia that people need to be on staff who speak Spanish or these folks don't buy anything. A lot of the time there is no employee in the store who speaks spanish. If the spanish speakers keep being accommdated what is stopping customers who speak arabic, chinese, and hindi from asking the same accommdations? It is just not fair to everyone. The only thing that i think Bush has ever been exactly right on point about is that english needs to be the national language. Is anyone else who works in this area have the same problem? What do ya'll do about it?

Just a note: i do speak a 2nd language (not fluent) that ain't spanish.

[claremarie]

I don't work in retail, but if I were running a store and losing droves of potential customers because my employees don't speak Spanish, I"d seriously consider hiring more Spanish-speaking employees. Especially if I am losing these customers to the store across the street that has plenty of bilingual employees. It's nothing personal. It's strictly business. The reality is that Bailey's Crossroads is full of Hispanics, and many of them are not yet fluent in English.

[dullnboring]

Just because they speak Spanish does NOT mean they are illegal. The overwhelming majority of Latinos in this country are here legally (over 80%) and fluency (or even competency) in English is currently not required to obtain proper papers to live and work in the United States.

Making English the national language will do nothing. It will not stop people from speaking their native languages in their day to day lives, languages they are more comfortable in. No one can regulate what language people speak in their private lives.

As claremarie pointed out, this is often a peculiar byproduct of capitalism in the sense that there have always been, and will always be, stores and businesses that cater towards a certain ethnic community. In seeing the potential to expand their market, larger companies have an interest in attempting to woo over these customers to their own business, often by staffing employees who speak their native languages. It's simply good business when located in an area like Bailey's Crossroads which has a very large Spanish-speaking community.

[Alanboy395]

Originally Posted by dullnboring

Just because they speak Spanish does NOT mean they are illegal. The overwhelming majority of Latinos in this country are here legally (over 80%) and fluency (or even competency) in English is currently not required to obtain proper papers to live and work in the United States.

Making English the national language will do nothing. It will not stop people from speaking their native languages in their day to day lives, languages they are more comfortable in. No one can regulate what language people speak in their private lives.

As claremarie pointed out, this is often a peculiar byproduct of capitalism in the sense that there have always been, and will always be, stores and businesses that cater towards a certain ethnic community. In seeing the potential to expand their market, larger companies have an interest in attempting to woo over these customers to their own business, often by staffing employees who speak their native languages. It's simply good business when located in an area like Bailey's Crossroads which has a very large Spanish-speaking community.

guess i can't argue with good business.

[saganista]

Originally Posted by Alanboy395

guess i can't argue with good business.

Well, I hear tell that slavery was good business for a while there, not to mention mail fraud, false advertising, and insider trading. And it seems that some still think dumping toxic waste into rivers, noxious gasses into the air, or blowing the tops off of mountains and leaving the rubble where it lies constitutes good business as well. A lot of people might argue against good business like that, so I don't think it's that you can't argue with good business, it may be more that you need some good reasons for the arguing...

[deportallofthem]

Originally Posted by Alanboy395

I work as a Sales Associate in a store in Bailey's Crossroads. I'm sick of illegal immagriants coming into my store asking if any other employees speak spanish. With all due respect these illegals don't know they are in the US which most americans aren't fluent in spanish. It is sad in Virginia that people need to be on staff who speak Spanish or these folks don't buy anything. A lot of the time there is no employee in the store who speaks spanish. If the spanish speakers keep being accommdated what is stopping customers who speak arabic, chinese, and hindi from asking the same accommdations? It is just not fair to everyone. The only thing that i think Bush has ever been exactly right on point about is that english needs to be the national language. Is anyone else who works in this area have the same problem? What do ya'll do about it?

Just a note: i do speak a 2nd language (not fluent) that ain't spanish.

Plus one!

I don't care if they speak Spanish, but they should speak and understand English when at work and assimilating (if they assimilate.)

[tenken627]

I don't know. Yes Virginia has illegal immigrants. But in no way is Virginia like California, New York, Texas, or the Southwestern states. Now they have a huge problem with illegal immigration.

I don't understand the overreaction in this area. Most of the Latin-Americans living in the Washington D.C. area are from many different Central-American or South American countries and are living here legally. But, it seem like everyone just groups them together as "Mexican" or that they all came here illegally.

It seems like the many problems people cite in this area are just rehashings of arguements made in other areas of the country.

I personally do not know of anybody losing massive amounts of jobs/work because of immigration in this area. The unemployment rate in this area is at a low of under 3%. Since 5% is considered full employment, having only a 2-3% rate is crazy.

Many immigrants here pay their taxes, because they are here LEGALLY. It's not like Texas or California where there are massive amounts of illegal immigrants.

And yes, there are many immigrants living together under one roof, but they do it to survive with the cost of living in the D.C. area being high. It's not like they WANT to put families into one home. After being financially settled, each family usually purchase their own home anyways.

Yes, illegal immigration can be a large problem. But, in this area, the overreaction makes it seem like illegal immigrants are flocking to D.C. by the millions each day.

[SmerkyGrl]

Wasn't the other thread talking about illegal and legal immigration just closed? Take this to the proper forum, please.

[Yac]

Originally Posted by SmerkyGrl

Wasn't the other thread talking about illegal and legal immigration just closed? Take this to the proper forum, please.

What she said
Closed.