~ Today’s post is the first of a two-part series regarding our failing immigration system and what we need to do about – part two will appear tomorrow. ~

An Afghan refugee who once worked with the CIA ambushes two American National Guardsmen, killing 20-year-old Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom and leaving Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe in a local hospital in critical condition.  A “Somalia Medicaid scandal” costing taxpayers millions becomes red meat for conservatives who fault Minnesota Governor Tim Walz for the massive fraud.

The common denominator in these two “immigrant events” is the abysmal vetting and resettling process under the last two democrat administrations.  These two seemingly unrelated events reveal a deeper problem withing our immigration system that has gone unattended for years – assimilation, a process that begins by admitting to the cultural distance between the immigrant’s home culture and core American norms, values and even mores.   Afghanistan and Somalia are prime examples, to wit:

• Both Afghan and Somali societies are clan-based, where loyalty to family or tribe outweighs loyalty to civic institutions. The U.S., by contrast, is an individual-based civic nation—something completely foreign to these communities.
• Both countries are overwhelmingly Muslim, often with traditional or conservative interpretations. Islam itself isn’t necessarily the obstacle; millions of Muslims have assimilated well.  But when religion merges tightly with identity, law, and family honor, assimilation becomes radically more complex.
• These societies assume gender segregation, limited autonomy for women, and values that clash with modern American expectations. Language compounds the problem: Somali and Pashto/Dari have no overlap with English, slowing education, employment, and daily interaction.

And compounding all of this: Somali and Afghan arrivals are refugees, not voluntary economic migrants.  They didn’t choose America for opportunity—they fled war, famine, civil collapse, the Taliban, Al-Shabaab, and the absence of functioning institutions.  Many arrive with low literacy (under 50% in many cases) minimal formal education, untreated trauma, and few transferable skills to the American economy.  These are enormous barriers to assimilation.

Contrast that with immigrants from India (engineers and STEM professionals), China (students and skilled workers), Mexico (economic migrants), or Vietnam (post-war refugees who rapidly built small businesses).  Starting points matter.

Meanwhile, U.S. refugee policy has made assimilation even more difficult by placing Afghans and Somalis into dense clusters in places like Minneapolis, Columbus, Maine, and Northern Virginia—high-density enclaves that reduce exposure to English, to American civic norms, and to broader economic networks.

In 1900, an Italian or Ukrainian immigrant who didn’t speak English had no choice but to learn our language.  But in 2025, an immigrant can live in certain American precincts and function entirely in their native tongue.  So, why are we shocked when assimilation lags?

Other nations take assimilation far more seriously than we do.  Canada and Australia require government-funded intensive English classes tied directly to citizenship eligibility.  This single policy alone pays enormous dividends—higher employment, stronger civic participation, and reduced extremism.

We should do the same.  As a condition of remaining in the U.S., refugee immigrants should be required to complete government-funded courses on constitutional principles, rights and responsibilities, gender equality, the rule of law, workplace expectations, and American cultural norms.  If we allow these people into our country, then we owe them the tools to succeed here.

I don’t have all the answers, but I do know that Europe clearly outperforms the U.S. when it comes to assimilating newcomers, or at least they used to—mandatory language training, mandatory civics classes, job-placement pathways, long-term support networks.  Meanwhile, here in the USA we typically assist refugees for three to eight months and then expect everything to sort itself out…but it doesn’t!

And this isn’t about spending more—it’s about spending smarter.  Replacing policies based on good intentions with policies that produce measurable outcomes is not only less expensive in the long run—it’s a necessity.  The aforementioned stolen Medicaid money could have funded robust, targeted assimilation programs such as intensive English training or job-site English programs for new workers to help immigrants navigate American laws, norms, and expectations.  And learning the language is the single strongest predictor of successful assimilation for  psychological, social and economic reasons.

America’s immigration record is the most successful in human history, but times change and immigration policy must change with it.  Our past successful immigration wasn’t automatic; it was the product of systems that once worked but no longer do.  That’s why Trump’s temporary pause on immigration from certain countries isn’t xenophobia. It’s realism.

Until vetting improves drastically and Homeland Security rebuilds our assimilation system from the ground up, a pause isn’t merely reasonable—it’s critical; it’s also what a responsible and compassionate nation should do.