Essay for Myth2
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Week8-Assimilationandcritiques.pdf
Thinking through assimilation…
What is assimilation?
Some common questions…
Should immigrants assimilate? Is assimilation good? Why?
Who does assimilation benefit (or not)?
What does assimilation entail? (Change of values?
Language? Citizenship?)
How quickly should immigrants assimilate?
Are today’s immigrants assimilating as quickly as past
immigrants have?
What impact do fast or slow rates of assimilation have on
the U.S.?
Some Definitions…
Assimilation: The process through which minorities
accept the patterns and norms of the dominant
culture and cease to exist as separate groups
Melting pot: A metaphor used to describe the
process of immigrant assimilation into U.S. dominant
culture
“Measuring” assimilation?
How might we measure assimilation? How might we
measure the impact of assimilation?
What would a research project aiming to measure
assimilation look like?
Now, work with a partner to:
1. Develop 2 research questions about assimilation
2. Identify a methodological strategy – how would you study this?
What data would you need access to?
3. How would you analyze this data, and how would it answer
your questions?
4. Were you able to fully answer your questions, or are you missing
something with your research strategy?
How have scholars measured
assimilation?
The “demographic” approach (longer time = more assimilation)
Measures:
Generation
Length of stay in U.S. for first-generation adults
Socioeconomic status – “American middle class lifestyle”
The “contextual” approach – differentiates the intensity with which immigrant children are “exposed” to American culture in the local context
Measures
Live with many other immigrants?
Spatial concentration/ “immigrant enclaves”
The “behavioral” approach
Measures
Non-English language use/English language learning
friendship segregation and intermarriage
Citizenship/naturalization rates
First-generation immigrant: A person who left his or her
home country as an adult
Second-generation immigrant: The child of immigrants
who is born and raised in the new host country
1.5-generation immigrant: The child of immigrants who is born in the family’s home country but at a young age
moves with his or her parents to a new host country
Dreamers, DACA recipients
Think about you and your family – what generation
immigrant are you?
When we try to measure
assimilation, what do we find?
For each chart…
1 Comment – what does this chart show?
1 Question – (ie. what else do you want to know?)
(Just lecture today to keep up!)
http://www.pewhispanic.org/2012/04/04/iv-language-use-among-
latinos/ - feel free to use this for myth papers
https://publicpolicy.stanford.edu/news/what-history-tells-us-about-assimilation-immigrants
Link to the larger report (addresses many elements
of Latino/Hispanic identity and public opinion):
http://www.pewhispanic.org/2012/04/04/when-
labels-dont-fit-hispanics-and-their-views-of-identity/
You may use this for your papers.
“But they’re not like the old
European immigrants!”
German-American immigrants in 19th century Wisconsin…
“In 1910, 24 percent of Hustisford residents reported being German monolingual, 35 percent of those American-born. Contrary to assumptions of economic marginality, in this region such monolinguals were not only housewives and farmhands but also craftsmen, tradesmen, teachers, and members of the clergy. Another stereotype is that monolinguals were geographically marginal, but they find them living interspersed with bilinguals and English monolinguals. Nor were they socially marginal, as church records point to a broadly German-dominant but overwhelmingly bilingual community, where numerous Anglo-Americans became highly proficient in German. Even schools were hardly the powerful tools of English learning they are often portrayed as being. Despite all this, Hustisford and similar communities presented themselves as hyperpatriotic Americans.”
This included some third-generation German monolinguals.
“while German Americans may have strongly identified with their imported culture and language, they also constructed and even embraced American identities… Early twentieth-century residents in Hustisford, we can conclude, enjoyed a time when it was possible to be both a German monolingual and a “good American.””
(Wilkerson and Salmons, 2012)
Left: German translation of “The Star-Spangled Banner” with flag imagery from Die Hausfrau, 1917. Below, patriotic language and imagery in contemporary immigrant protests
Those common questions…
Should immigrants assimilate? Is assimilation good? Why?
Who does assimilation benefit (or not)?
What does assimilation entail? (Change of values?
Language? Citizenship?)
How quickly should/do immigrants assimilate?
Are today’s immigrants assimilating as quickly as past
immigrants have?
What impact do fast or slow rates of assimilation have on
the U.S.?
When we measure assimilation
We find that most immigrants “assimilate”
(linguistically, at least) by the second generation,
regardless of place of origin
We also find that there are many factors EXTERNAL
to an actual immigrant that impact the ability to
“assimilate” – ie. barriers to assimilation
We also find that there are some problems with the
concept of assimilation…
And yet…
New Jersey: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/teach er-people-fighting-speak-american-article-1.3566308
New York: http://remezcla.com/culture/gringo- threatens-to-call-ice-speaking-spanish/
Montana: http://remezcla.com/culture/border- patrol-us-citizen-spanish/
Colorado: http://remezcla.com/culture/woman- standing-up-for-two-latinas-is-an-ally-colorado/
The Superbowl: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4BC8zUfNhU
Enduring questions
Why do you think we have this idea that Hispanic/Latino
immigrants don’t learn English as fast as other groups?
What makes language such a contentious, emotionally-
charged issue?
Can immigrants who speak (only) Spanish, or another
language, be “Americans” (in terms of values and a sense
of belonging)? Can they be patriotic?
Critiquing assimilation theories
What is Suarez-Orozco’s critique of the typical
assimilation story?
Specifically, what are his critiques of the three
assumptions –
“Clean break”
“homogeneity”
“progress”
What is the alternative framework S-O suggests?
Segmented Assimilation
Segmented assimilation theory: a theory which posits that new
immigrant populations (and their future generations) may have
divergent assimilation paths based on socio-economic status,
context of reception, and other factors.
Based on the recognition that U.S. is an unequal, or stratified, society
When immigrants arrive, only certain segments of U.S. society are
accessible to them (ie. where can they afford to live? What social
capital to they draw on to get established?)
Used to predict what will happen to the children of immigrants
(second-generation)
Immigrants may experience upward, downward, or straight-line
social/economic mobility
Focus is on barriers to and opportunities for integration (socioeconomic
status, race/ethnicity, gender, etc.)
Segmented Assimilation and
immigrant “success” explained
“immigrants who do well are often those who are able, due to certain advantages, to move into white middle-class neighborhoods.
Another successful path is that of immigrants embedded in strong ethnic enclaves that have the human and economic capital to encourage education and mechanisms of incorporation into the broader U.S. society while simultaneously nurturing co-ethnic ties.
Furthermore, these scholars argue, immigrants who settle in poor, native- born minority areas are more likely to experience downward mobility, as they assimilate into poverty, live in contexts of discrimination and racism, and adopt the… entrenched struggles that accompany these communities.
Privilege spawns privilege, as wealthier migrants high in human capital come in with resources, tend to enjoy a positive context of reception, and integrate into more affluent enclaves…
Poor and working class migrants, especially undocumented ones, are likely to arrive with low levels of human capital and to face a negative context of reception, which impacts their incorporation and limits their mobility.” (Menjívar et al, pp. 68-9; citing Portes and Zhou 1993)
Negative impacts?
“In summary, among Hispanics living in high-SES neighborhoods, we find some evidence that assimilation is positively associated with college enrollment, academic achievement, and self- esteem, and negatively associated with depression. There is also evidence that for these same adolescents assimilation is positively associated with delinquency, violence, use of controlled substance, and early sex initiation.”
(Xie and Greenman 2005, 28)
“Sociologist Rumbaut said his research has shown that the most disciplined, hardest-working and respectful students "tend to be the most recently arrived." They are the ones "who have not been here long enough to be Americanized into bad habits, into a Beavis and Butthead perspective of the world.“”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/meltingpot/meltingpot.htm
Assimilation rates of different generations --- production of tension in families
Alternatives to assimilation
Multiculturalism: A pattern of ethnic relations in which new immigrants and their children enculturate into the dominant national culture and yet retain an ethnic culture
What do we have in the United States? Are we a melting pot, or a multicultural nation? How might we try to answer this question with social science research methods?
A pro-multiculturalism opinion based in theory of segmented assimilation: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/a-b-wilkinson/us- multiculturalism-or-cultural-assimilation_b_8218490.html
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/topics/immigrant-integration
“a dynamic, two-way process in which immigrants and the receiving
society work together to build secure, vibrant, and cohesive
communities.” - https://weareoneamerica.org/what-we-do/issues-and-
organizing/immigrant-integration/
Also “immigrant incorporation”
**WCIA model**
Revisiting race in immigration
law
How does the United States’ history of race-based immigration
law impact the current prospects for assimilation of today’s
immigrants and immigrant-descendant populations?
(Who determines who is assimilated and who isn’t, what
measures are used, and where the bar is set?)
Next…
Monday – Pia Orrenius, Dallas Federal Reserve
Bring your questions on immigration and the economy!
Merge into conversation about Week 8 readings and Week 9 readings - “Good” and “bad” immigrants, Immigration and the economy
Media framing
Deservingness narratives
“criminalization”
“economic drain”
Some final changes to the syllabus coming up
