Until recently it was understood that if you immigrated to a country, you learned the language and adopted the culture. You might keep the traditions of your culture alive in your own home, but for the most part, you tried to assimilate into the culture of your new home. Unfortunately, there are many immigrants who have recently arrived in America with the idea of transforming America into the country they left. If you are happy with the culture of the country you left, please stay there–do not attempt to bring that culture here.<\/p>\n
BizPac Review<\/a> posted an article today that illustrates one of the problems immigration without assimilation creates.<\/p>\n The article reports:<\/p>\n A\u00a0group of Muslims<\/a> who work for Amazon would rather pray than work, and because the\u00a0multinational tech giant refuses to grant them this entitlement, the Muslims are now fighting back. How? By protesting and airing their grievances to sympathetic ears in the left-wing media<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n On Dec. 14 the group of\u00a0Minneapolis-based\u00a0East African Muslims held a protest outside the Amazon warehouse where they work to demand longer break times.<\/strong><\/p>\n …At the moment the Muslim warehouse workers receive\u00a0two 15 minute breaks and one 30 minute break per shift. According\u00a0to\u00a0Somali immigrant\u00a0Khadra Ibrahin, these breaks are too short. Why? Because they make it impossible for her and her peers to both use the restroom and pray.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cAnd so most of the time we choose prayer over bathroom, and have learned to balance our bodily needs,\u201d she said to Vox<\/a>, adding that to do otherwise would affect their production rate.<\/strong><\/p>\n Each employee must pack at least<\/em> 240 boxes per hour, or 4 per minute, which is possible so long as their breaks are short, i.e., under 15 or 30 minutes. But to use the restroom and pray,\u00a0Ibrahin and her coworkers would need longer break times. And that\u2019s exactly what they want.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWorkers and the community want respect,\u201d\u00a0Abdirahman Muse of the Awood Center, which reportedly organized the protest, said to Vox. \u201cResponding to our demands for basic fairness and dignity are things we shouldn\u2019t have had to even push Amazon on. We don\u2019t want charity; we want respect and a fair return on the hard work that brings Amazon their profits.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n A spokesman for Amazon noted, “Associates are welcome to request an unpaid prayer break for over 20 minutes for which productivity expectations would be adjusted.” To me that seems like the perfect solution–you may have all the prayer breaks you want but you will only be paid for the breaks other employees are also paid for. Amazon has a responsibility to allow for religious practices–it does not have a responsibility to pay someone to practice their religion on company time.<\/p>\n I hope that Amazon stands strong on this–caving would set a very bad precedent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Until recently it was understood that if you immigrated to a country, you learned the language and adopted the culture. You might keep the traditions of your culture alive in your own home, but for the most part, you tried … Continue reading