Immigrant Groups And Non-Ethnic Groups: Intermarriage Between Minority Groups

Humans have been interbreeding and separating until now and will continue. There has been signs in this world about the elimination of races. The writer Olson stated in his article about how Hawaii has started to develop a community with no topic of race. He states, “Hawaii’s high rates of intermarriage have fascinated academics for decades” (335). The occurrence of intermarriages has been caused by the clash of cultures that took place when the Europeans arrival. During this time, because of the transfer of dangerous diseases and conflicts a large percentage of the Hawaiian population died. This helped an increased interbreeding between humans in the society. Due to the result of interbreeding there were new generations that were mixed in race with both Polynesian and European descent. Hawaii is not the only example; every human has a mixed ancestry to some level. This does not mean all the people in Hawaii live with a high level of peace and cooperation, there are some sort of conflicts that still exist. Interaction have become little more comfortable. No race still does not mean no problem. The writer Rebekah Nathan discusses about the importance of hope and conversation in creating a generation that does not know about the idea of race, class, or ethnicities that contributes towards discrimination. Nathan explains, “diversity ideal is the hope that all students will develop friends and have important conversations with those of backgrounds and ethnicities different from their own” (324). Nathan wants her readers to understand the importance of conversation in the development of a unified community. The community should not only be unified but also diverse. Through conversation between mixed ethnicities is the only way to develop a society with no topic of race. Through eliminating race, in another way it contributes towards a stop of discrimination and misconceptions. Race only exist when

In order for assimilation to occur a minority group becomes an integrated part of the majority group; this assimilation results in non-distinguishing of one group from another by cultural characteristics. In order for this process to be complete, it must entail, not only an active effort by the minority group to shed all distinguishing actions and beliefs, and also complete unqualified acceptance of that individual by the dominant society.

It is expected that ultimately there will be a loss of ethnic distinctiveness for immigrants in the U.S., meaning the lack of attachment to the country of origin. (Golash-Boza, 2006) It is argued that all ethnic distinctiveness will no longer exist by the seventh or eighth generations. Before exploring the influence of foreign born vs. U.S. born parents on their children’s cultural assimilation; the different theories of assimilation will be explored. The idea of Assimilation came about in the early 20th century. (Golash-Boza, 2006) Assimilation is surrounded by two theories, the first that all immigrants will assimilate sooner or later and that the generational status of the individual is one of the main factors in determining the

Many researchers have studied the immigrant assimilation in the recent years. America’s ethnic groups have been expected to come together as one and into the mainstream of american society for decades. Immigrant assimilation is a complex process in which immigrants should not only fully integrate themselves to a new country but also lose aspects perhaps all their heritage too if necessary. Social scientists rely on a primary benchmark to assess immigrant assimilation which is socioeconomic status. A melting pot can be described as a metaphor which indicates a society where many different types of people blend in as one.

The United States is known as the melting pot because of the many different cultures that live here. Hispanics make up 35.3 million according to the 2000 census. Many people don’t realize that within the Hispanic culture there are many different groups. The different groups have different linguistic, political, social, economic, religion, and statues. Most Hispanics see themselves in terms of their individual ethnic identity, as Mexican American, Puerto Rican, Cuban, etc. instead of members of the larger, more ambiguous term Hispanic or Latino (U.S. Diplomatic Mission to Germany, 2009).

In American society, there are multiple cultures and races exist. Since immigrants bring the various cultures to America, Americans face a highly controversial problem. Some of the Americans believe all of the ethnic groups assimilate into a common culture can help Americans distinctly identify themselves. Others argue that ethnic groups should not abandon their cultural heritages background. As a result, merging different cultures into one new culture will cause America lose its cultural diversity which is one significant charm of this country. On the contrary, if every ethnic group only focuses on building their own community and resists communicate with others, it will aggravate the separation of a nation. Although people often argue about these two ways which one is more appropriate to Americans, I think Richard Rodriguez's idea is more realistic in nowadays American society. Rodriguez resists the idea of the melting pot, and believes that assimilation is inevitable and reciprocal. In the essay Does America Still Exist?, Rodriguez explains his thought to us through his experiences.

Assimilation patterns differ in societies that are characterized by paternalistic race relations than in societies characterized by competitive race relations. According to the lectures and readings, assimilation is defined as a process by which minority and majority groups are merged into some total societal unit. There are also three different type of assimilation which are Anglo (or dominant group) conformity, the Melting Pot, and cultural pluralism. Some additional concepts that go along with assimilation are acculturation where the minority adopts the dominant culture, amalgamation the biological blending of the groups, and the transmuting pot where the dominant group selects aspects of minority culture and modifies it to fit the

As we have read in Healey’s (2011) textbook, the term “Hispanic” has been used to describe all different kinds of minority races, such as, Puerto Ricans and Cubans , etc., under the same token (pg. 318). The government identifies Mexican Americans and other minority races that have similarities in both appearance and cultural characteristics under one term (Healey, 2011, pg. 318). This causes the perception that they are all the same, taking away the individualistic origins of their place, culture, beliefs, etc. Most of all, this classifies false/mistaken assumptions that they are all immigrants, poor and same language speaking individuals, damaging each race’s individuality. Socially, the term Hispanic technically only classifies groups as

Throughout history society has viewed mixed race families as a sinful thing. Some viewed it as though they betrayed their own race. However, as our society developed things slowly started to change and one of those things was accepting mixed race families. Families throughout history had fought for what they believe to be the meaning of “true love” they stood by each other until the end. A history about what is considered to be mixed race and the laws that were implanted to stop people from becoming mixed race families. Also, discuss how a couple from Virginia made the difference in society due to the fact they came from a mixed race family. Third, how society views mixed race families in the present and the future

For over thirty years, White America believed that all people who immigrated to the United States of America whether by force or will wanted to assimilate into America’s culture and become a member of a homogenous group. During this time, many immigrants decided to assimilate fearing the consequences if they did not submit to White America’s way of life. However, White American millenniums believe this antiquated way of thinking is out of touch, especially with the constant changing globalized world. In fact, many immigrants prefer acculturation instead of assimilation to retain their primary identity and culture (Chronicle 1). Furthermore, White America is accepting of the cultural differences in our country, often participating in many

Higher expectations by first-generation immigrant parents also involve as intergenerational conflict in forming the American identity. In the article “Intergenerational

Huntington explains that a lot of the founding principles of the United States, such as freedom from oppression, and the formulation of the government were based on the majority cultures, which were white Europeans. Following the creation of the country, millions of people have flocked from the four corners of the globe in order to live in a nation of freedom and understanding (Huntington 1). It is thus the white originator culture which has allowed the United States to become a melting pot. However, Huntington proclaims that this unique identity is being threatened by the large amounts of Hispanic people who are becoming a part of the United States. Without assimilation into the larger culture, the ever-increasing number of Hispanics will likely become so numerous as to divide

The two articles used were “Understanding the Occurrence of Interracial Marriage in the United States through Differential Assimilation” (Lewis, Ford- Robinson, 2010) and “Marital Dissolution among Interracial Couples” (Zhang, Van Hook, 2009). The first article “Understanding the Occurrence of Interracial Marriage in the United States through Differential Assimilation”, spoke about the unprecedented changes that our society is going though in the 21st century.

Rees, Wohland, Norman, Lomax, and Clark (2017) argue that it is important to project ethnic minorities for the future mix of populations with different national and cultural backgrounds. Histogram 1 (see Appendix) shows that 13% of the UK population are from ethnic minority background, which apparently means that it is one of the most ethnically diverse

One of the most important concepts that I have learned from class is Assimilation Theory. This theory is based on the adaptation that a certain ethnic group goes through in order to fit in and survive in the new dominant society. For example, according to the book the United States in known to be a predominantly white cultural society, therefore many ethnic groups from all over who choose to come to the U.S often have to assimilate and adapt to the social and cultural norms. Assimilation theory affects many ethnic groups in sense that it can change the way they behave and live in a society. Whenever another ethnic