While I agree with the philosophy (integration over division), I'm concerned that this kind of discussion ("Arlington vs. Prince William") only plays into an "upstate vs. downstate" framing which may harm our election prospects going forward.

It allows people like Stewart to say "we don't want to be like Arlington" regardless of whether "being like Arlington" is a good thing, because people in PWC identify themselves as NOT inside-the-beltway.

Bottom line - Arlington has absolutely done it right, but the focus, IMHO, should be on HOW it was done, rather than WHERE it was done.

So "The Arlington Way" may be better thought of as "The Better Way" :)

Just MHO.

If you want to think of a different name for it, that's fine.  Either way, this has absolutely nothing to do with "NOVA vs. ROVA," "upstate vs. downstate," or anything else like that.  It has to do with treating people like human beings vs. irresponsible and divisive demagoguery as practiced by the Corey Stewarts of the world, whether they live in Prince William County OR Arlington OR Alexandria OR...I don't care.

I agree, it is not, and SHOULD not be NOVA vs. ROVA (the Chesterfield story above is a great example). My concern is that we keep it from becoming NOVA vs. ROVA. This is the kind of issue that can be demagogued to enhance wedges between Arlington/Fairfax and everyone else.

We need to fight this fight in such a way that it creates links, not divisions. As in "Virginia already knows how to do immigration, there are communities where it has been done well." Rather than "Arlington knows how to do immigration, the rest of you backwards counties should copy our highly-evolved ways."

And I KNOW that's not what you're saying, but that is how it can be painted.

Arlington's success at this is VIRGINIA'S success. THAT is how it should be promoted. But again, this is just my opinion.

n/t

could pop up anywhere.  And any community can choose to value effective government through consensus and respect.  Or not.  It has nothing to do with geography, as far as I know.

I find it interesting that you bolded a different section

The main point for me is this

That success results in part from the county's history of attracting a gradual, diverse stream of foreigners and in part from its strong efforts to help integrate them in the community.

Gradual diverse stream of foreigners. 

Prince William was basically overrun in a period of less than five years and was woefully unprepared to deal with the sheer volume of illegal immigrants.  When people feel shellshocked an unfortunate natural reaction is to lash out. 

 

in Prince William County, then, to deal with the situation and not just spew hot air.  I'm not saying that Arlington and Prince William are the same situations, but the issue of integrating new immigrants into America is facing all of us, and it isn't going away.

Respectfully, I am worried that this kind of discussion feeds the divisiveness.

Perhaps PWC HAS done immigration wrong (okay, they have) but we need to get beyond that, and say "let's do it right." This isn't a failure of GOVERNMENT in PWC, as a failure of Republicans and demagogues. (Again MHO)

"This issue is facing us all, PWC is having a very difficult time dealing with it. Here are some things that have worked in other Virginia communities who have dealt with this."

Okay, perhaps I'm too flowers and rainbows here... :)

...see how far it gets you with the Corey Stewarts of the world, who are hell bent on using this as a "wedge issue."  You think they're going to give that up because we point to success stories like Arlington?  To the contrary, what they've already threatened to do is to PENALIZE places like Arlington for being too nice to immigrants!  That's right, Corey Stewart wants to tell Arlington and other places that don't share his immigrant-bashing approach to either do it his way -- or else!  How do you get around this, and why are we getting hung up on the phrase "The Arlington Way?"  I'll gladly change the title of this post if that helps move the focus of this discussion where it should be, not into side-issues and distractions.

Yeah, I feel like I hit my ball deep into the weeds on this.

I just know that this issue is rather sensitive here in Loudoun. It would be way to easy for this to be tipped in the wrong direction if we start saying "we need to do what Arlington did."

So, please take my commentary with some salt.

What if the influx were all U.S. citizens from North Carolina?  Would there be any difference in the perception of the anti-immigration crowd?  Would they be "shell shocked"?

I don't buy that the only concern here is volume.

If there were a huge influx of people from Canada, the Corey Stewarts of the world wouldn't be happening.

property upkeep, disorderly conduct, loitering, overcrowding, spending resources on non-citizens over the needs of existing citizens etc etc.

I think the education campaign that Arlington has done could be replicated in other areas to improve the overall situation.

In terms of the North Carolina argument one only has to look to Loudoun to see what problems happen when an area is overwhelmed.  The voters approved a slow-growth board because the county infrastrucutre cant handle the transportation, education, and public safety needs of the existing citizen residents.

The immigration issue is extremely complex.  Calls of xenophobia do nothing to contribute to the real debate that needs to happen.

anecdotally though we have had huge waves of new immigrants into Arlington over the past 30 years (much of which I have witnessed first hand).  In the period after the Vietnam War we had a massive influx of Vietnamese-Americans into the area -- the influx from Latin and South America has taken place for the better part of three decades.  Many of my good friends at all levels of education in Arlington were first and second generation immigrants. 

I think the main difference between Prince William and Arlington isn't so much due to the fact that the influx has been substantially larger -- it probably has a lot to do with the fact that Arlington tends to be a much more transient area.  Everyone is an outsider to some degree -- its rare to find families who have lived in the county for generations.  Education is also a factor (in terms of formal education, Arlington is the best educated county in the U.S. -- and quite possibly in the world.  This according to a 2006 survey in CNN Money).

I agree that Prince William probably would have handled a much more gradual immigration transformation better than it has the current wave, but the immigration waves themselves in Arlington haven't been any less dramatic than what Prince William is currently undergoing.  The response though has been. 

-- ala "The Karl Rove Way." 

I think someone was taking lessons, and it's frightening to think that this tactic could pop up all over the country.  BTW, where's Karl?  Wonder if he's stirring the pot?

"The Corey Stewart Way" vs. "The Virginia Way"

Neighborliness and mutual self-reliance, that's the Virginia way.

:)

all the different cultures there are melding together in a wonderful way!  There are thousands of recent African refugees, many Hispanics, several thousand Bosnian refugees, Indians, Orientals and others who are all loving the diversity of Greensboro!  There was a city council and mayor's election on November 6th and nary a word on illegal immigration. 

They were even have a cultural diversity celebration there! 

Corey Stewart is a cheap trick racist!