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RE: What does this mean?
Hey, I'm just reportin' what was... reported. Also, the effects are more than loneliness, it's other stuff such as "social capital, fabric of associations, trust, and neighborliness that create and sustain communities." In other words, I'm guessing if people can't speak the same language in their own neighborhood, it's hard to get to know your neighbors.
I myself (is that redundant?) am wondering: the article quoted took pains to say "ethnic diversity" as opposed to "multiculturalism." Are they the same thing? Did Putnam study the effect fully assimilated immigrants had on communities? I also think that if Putnam's study is even close to being right, it would impact the "debate" (and I say "debate" because the only people really debating this are politicians, because to the majority of Americans, it's just common-sense) on illegal immigration. Legal immigrants already have to know how to speak English to get here, and do generally assimilate.
RE: What does this mean?
It's not just loneliness, it's also social capitol, which has to do with productivity. Aparently, the study found that those who do not become Americans, but isolate themselves in their own culture are less productive than those who assimulate into American culture. And less productivity will keep them in poverty. I agree that it will not have much of affect on the debate but it may cause people to re-think multi-culturalism. BTW - I've never heard any anti-ILLEGAL-immigration advocate use "they cook food that smells weird" or any of your other examples, as an argument for not letting ILLEGAL immigrants break the law.
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What does this mean?
I was alarmed, at first, when I read the first paragraph of your post. Then I got to the punch line and dismissed it as laughable.
How do Putnam's findings add to the debate? Pardon me, but America's diversity did not start in the past 10 years or whenever the current Hispanic crisis began. Also, how is loneliness a factor in the current immigration debate (unless it constitutes ammo for anti-immigration advocates, who will add it to their laundry list of solid anti-foreign fodder - with "they cook food that smells weird" and "they listen to non-English speaking singers" and "they don't seem to master the English language properly"). Loneliness? That is all? One needs to look no further to the great American painter Edward Hopper and his studies of solitude in city-dwellers to understand that people in big cities do not trust ANYBODY or that Americans in general do not know their neighbors well (unless you live in a secluded cul-de-sac, which I am sure is not a site targeted by Putnam).
The conclusion of the article you cite is ludicrous. I will not pause for a second.
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