Cultural assimilation Totally Explained

Everything about Cultural Assimilation totally explained

Cultural assimilation (often called merely assimilation) is a process of integration whereby members of an ethno-cultural community (such as immigrants, or ethnic minorities) are "absorbed" into another, generally larger, community. This implies the loss of the characteristics of the absorbed group, such as language, customs, ethnicity and self-identity.
Assimilation may be spontaneous, which is usually the case with immigrants, or forced, as is often the case of the assimilation of ethnic minorities (see forced assimilation.
A region or society where several different groups are spontaneously assimilated is sometimes referred to as a melting pot.

Cultural influence

A group (a state or an ethnicity) can spontaneously adopt a different culture due to its political relevance, or to its perceived superiority. The first is the case of the Latin culture and language, that were gradually adopted by most of the subjugated people.
The second is the case of subjugated, but older and richer culture, which see itself imitated by the new masters, for example the victorious Roman Republic adopted more from the Hellenistic cultures than it imposed in most domains, except such Roman specialities as law and the military.

Assimilation of immigrants

socioeconomic status, geographic distribution, language attainment, and intermarriage. William A.V. Clark defines immigrant assimilation "as a way of understanding the social dynamics of American society and that it's the process that occurs spontaneously and often unintended in the course of interaction between majority and minority groups"..
It has been found that Between 1880 and 1920, the United States had taken in roughly 24 million immigrants. This increase in immigration can be attributed to many historical changes one being the cold war politics from the 1960s through the 1980s and the disintegration of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s. Over 1.8 million Jews (including some non-Jewish family members) emigrated from the Former Soviet Union..

Language Attainment is defined as the ability to speak English and the loss of the individual's mother tongue.

Policies on immigrant assimilation

When considering immigrant assimilation it's important to consider why immigrants migrate. One reason immigrants migrated was The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act(IRCA), which legalized 2.3 million formally undocumented Mexican Immigrants..Hatton argues that that specification of the earnings function should be improved in two ways. First, immigrants who arrived as children should be treated separately from those who arrived as adults. Second, specification of the earnings function should be better approximate to the true shape of age-earnings profiles.. Hatton points out that with these modifications, the patterns of immigrant earnings which have emerged make more sense with those of the 20th century and with traditional views on immigrant assimilation in the 19th century.

Owning a home and immigrant assimilation

Owning a home can be seen as a step into assimilation. William A.V. Clark explores this link in his book "Immigrants and the American Dream Remarking the Middle Class". Clark is aware that the process of assimilation is more than just being able to purchase a home. He argues that "homeownership" is one of the steps of assimilation, it's becoming part of the community and a neighborhood, and being a part of the daily activities that take place in a community.

Naturalization and immigrant assimilation

Citizenship is one of the most significant dimensions of assimilation outside of marriage. The immigration debate focuses not only the number of immigrants who should be admitted, who should be allowed to be admitted but it's also looks at the processes of incorporation, and most importantly how citizenship should be extended and to who it should be extended to. For example, should it be extended to those who arrive illegally. Allowing for naturalization of immigrants can create tension in assimilation. On one hand, those who favor the admission of immigrants input that these new residents will help build and enrich the American democratic process. However others argue that the nature and legitimacy of the nation may be challenged and perhaps even threatened.

New immigrant gateways and immigrant assimilation

Although it's changing, the overwhelming majority of immigrants still settle in traditional gateway states such as Florida, New York, California, Illinois, Texas, and Massachusetts.. It has found that immigrants settle in traditional gateways where there are large populations of foreign-born people. Walters and Jimenez have illustrated the changes in the geographic distribution and the rates of growth of immigration in the United States. They show the number of foreign-born individuals in states where the foreign-born population grew by a factor of two or more between 1990 and 2000. Walters and Jimenez found that the largest percentage growth in the foreign-born population, was found in either the Midwest or the South in additional none of the traditional gateways were included in this large percentage growth. Walters and Jimenez noted that a reason these traditional gateways didn't have an increase at the same rate of the new gateways was because, new gateways didn't have many immigrants to begin with. Walters and Jimenez have argued that this new change in geography could possibly change the way researchers assess immigrant assimilation. They argue that these new gateways are unique and they propose that immigrant assimilation may be different from the experiences of immigrants in more traditional gateways in at least three ways. First, the long history of immigration in these established gateways means that the place of immigrants in terms of class, racial, and ethnic hierarchies in these traditional gateways are more structured or established on the other hand these new gateways don't have much immigration history therefore the place of immigrants in terms of class, racial, and ethnic hierarchies is less defined and immigrants may have more influence to define their position. Second, the size of new gateways may influence immigrant assimilation. Having a smaller gateway may influence the level of segregation among immigrants and native-born people. Third, the difference in institutional arrangements may influence immigrant assimilation. Traditional gateways unlike new gateways have many institutions set up to help immigrants which include legal-aid, bureaus, social organizations. Finally, Walters and Jimenez have only speculated that these differences may influence immigrant assimilation and the way researchers should assess immigrant assimilation.

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