Extent and Voluntary Nature of Cultural Assimilation of Immigrants to America

Assimilation is the manner in which people of a cultural group start to lose their individuality that makes them different from the more dominant culture, as they seek to fit in. America has been a melting pot of different cultures for centuries, whether it was by choice, forced or for a better life. History has proven that assimilation in America was not acceptable but that has changed over time.

Latino immigrants have always had many obstacles when coming into the United States, the difference between the American and the Latin cultures is what has caused a huge hurdle that immigrants have found hard to overpass. This obstacle has caused many generations to go through cultural assimilation. Mize et al. (2012) explain that cultural assimilation is the adaptation of immigrants to unfamiliar cultural patterns, which include language and the value systems of other cultures. In order for immigrants to be successful in another country, which is not of their origin; they need to learn how to assimilate to their new homes. Immigrants have learned that they need to adapt in order to get to experience new opportunities and also to learn from new cultures that are not theirs (Mize et al., 2012). Immigrants have learned that they are not leaving behind their own believes and norms, but mixing their norms, this gives them the opportunity to create and mix their culture with the new. Cultural assimilation can be hard to achieve because in one hand it is important to change in order to live within a different culture, but on the other hand it is important for a person to maintain their identity regardless of where they live. At times immigrants find it difficult to achieve a balance and for many families it is a struggle over generations. There are different levels of assimilation, some immigrants come to the

The materials this week dealt with the assimilation theories: classical assimilation theory, new assimilation theory, and segmented assimilation theory. Some others were summaries and critiques of those theories.

As the beginning the definition of Cultural Assimilation is when a community or a community are integrated into a majority group (dominant) and have the opportunity to acquire the same characteristics or habits. So, the community that integrates most end up losing or relegating its specificity.

I think that the article was very interesting and it opened my eye up to a topic I that I never realized had such presence in our society. Overall I liked the article as I enjoy learning about Human Geography and the essence of human nature. I learned that Hispanics have the greatest ability to integrate into our culture than any other cultural group. This can be for a number of reasons and it really just adds to the notion of the general integration of the worlds people into one unified front. I could add to it maybe by bringing in knowledge about other culture’s assimilation into American culture and how they also changed, and redefined it was a whole. I found it very fascinating how the department was able to go around and ask these various

Per psychology.com, Cultural assimilation refers to the assimilation of cultural patterns, including language and value systems. Structural assimilation refers to the assimilation of non-native-born individuals and their families into the structural customs of American society, including intermarriage. In the past, cultural and structural assimilation has been seen as necessary to the economic and social health of the country, but also as a process by which non-native-born individuals and families merge themselves into American mainstream society. Assimilation is the process by which immigrants become part of the mainstream culture of their new country, lessening the differences between immigrants and native-born Americans. Research often

Cultural assimilation is the process in which the immigrants adopt or integrate their values, beliefs, and attitudes to fit better into the host nation (Scott, 2014). It is can include acquiring a new language, a new understanding of cultural framework, and learning appropriate behaviour expectations. The process of assimilation does not have to mean a complete replacement of the older culture. Instead, the process can be used in varying success by the integration of various parts of the host culture that can facilitate adoption into the mainstream society (Mukherji, 2005).

In regards to the topic of race, the U.S stands on a rocky surface with laws that aren’t followed. Although the U.S maintains laws, such as the Fourteenth Amendment, to keep us bound as equals, there are still people who think differently of others. To this, there is still a division amongst the people in the U.S, whereas there are prejudice and racist people. As a result, many start to assimilate into the American culture, forget their own culture, and develop an American image. Although there are problems, the world can strive for solutions.

Cultural assimilation is when immigrants who have recently migrated to a new place, adopt the new societies culture, such as the way they dress, what they eat, and the language (Ngin 1990). Social-structural assimilation is when immigrants who have recently migrated to a new place are allowed the same access and rights to things such as the legal system and the police (Ngin 1990). An example of cultural assimilation is how the Italians assimilated to the American culture in order to be more accepted. An example of social-structural assimilation is how “in an incident involving Vietnamese fishermen and members of the Ku Klux Klan who were disputing fishing rights along the Texas coast, the Vietnamese had full protection of the legal system” (Ngin 1990, 46).

“Cultural assimilation is a complex and multifaceted process that first involves immigrants learning the language, cultural norms, and role expectations of the absorbing society, and further changes in attitudes”, or so it is explained by Dejun Su, Chad Richardson, and Guang-zhen Wang, in their article, “Assessing Cultural Assimilation of Mexican Americans: How Rapidly Do Their Gender-Role Attitudes Converge to the U.S. Mainstream?” (764). Throughout history and also present day society, cultural assimilation is easy to be identified, thanks to the “melting pot” quality of North America. Also, cultural assimilation is questioned about the effects it has on various groups

Overall, American culture is constructed through the assimilation of cultural groups throughout its history. For example, the Hot Dog is an american mean, yet it was the Germans that first created it and brought to America. The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council wrote, “As it turns out, it is likely that the North American hot dog comes from a widespread common European sausage brought here by butchers of several nationalities” (NHDSC). The staple food of American culture, is not even from America. In the same way, American music is the byproduct of other cultures that lived in the US: “American roots music draws on the lived experience of ordinary men and women, who were and often still are defined and limited by cultural constructions of

In politics, there are many ways that people identify themselves in society. These are broken down into two main categories: ethnic and national identity. Ethnic identity is a group’s specific characteristics or societal institutions that make the group culturally different from others. Ethnic identities are often based on customs, language, geographic locations, history, race, religion, and many other factors. People do not choose their ethnicities, they are born into them, and their ethnic identity will remain constant throughout their lives. Within a single ethnic group are characteristics that embody norms and standards for behavior that are specific to that group. Most countries and places in the world are not accustomed to have a single ethnic group, and can vary from a couple to thousands of ethnic groups within a territory.

According to social identification theory, an individual’s personal identity is for an important part derived from his or her (perceived) membership of a social group (Tajfel and Turner, 1979). Social identification occurs when one experiences a certain level of oneness with the group, which leads to thoughts, feelings, and expectations that are consistent with the group (Hogg, Terry, and White 1995). Such a group is comprised of individuals who share a common social identification or see themselves as part of the same social category (Stets and Burke, 2000). However, it is not a requirement that group members meet face-to-face for social identification to occur; it can also be developed without any social interaction, for example in the case

Within social psychology, the social identity tradition (Tajfel, Billig, Bundy, & Flament, 1971) argues that individuals possess more than their characteristic personal identities, which are activated during interpersonal contact with others; in addition, people can engage in intergroup behavior as informed by their social identities (Gudykunst & Bond, 1980). Such social identities comprise memberships in any psychologically relevant grouping with which an individual identifies, including kin, peers, profession, nation, and cultural identity (Galang, Quiñones, Adriano, Portillo, & Carvajal, 2015). The ingroup identification afforded by social identities then allows individuals to distinguish between people belonging to and excluded from the ingroup (Brewer & Yuki, 2007), and to bolster one’s self-concept through affiliation with high-status groups and individuals (Gudykunst & Bond, 1980). In addition, these social identities are created and manifested in different ways across cultures as a function of the values endorsed by society, the ways in which society’s members construe themselves, and the manners in which their interpersonal relationships are structured (Feitosa, Salas, & Salazar, 2012).

While the parameters and construct of an in-group may vary between and across cultures, most people associate and interact positively with fairly small cliques within the context of their own social or cultural groups. Cultural identity for example is the latch that fastens an individual to a specific group. Furthermore, social and cultural groups play a key role in defining and promoting human behaviors. Ones’ social identity codifies the sense of self which is determined by their group