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Neoconservative commentators frequent assume that Mexican immigrants will automatically assimilate into American culture because our way of life is just so much more wonderful. In reality, however, Mexican culture is mature, stable, deeply-rooted, and highly appealing to Mexicans.

Granted, it’s not very effective at producing the kinds of things that, say, Ben Franklin most valued—such as scientific progress; technological inventiveness; a love of the printed word; civic cooperativeness; and an optimal mix of liberty, order, and equality.

But Mexicans have different values, which their culture caters to.

Meanwhile, Robert Putnam has not recently commented on the “vibrancy” of multiculturalism.