# data[].attributes.body
"Cultural celebrations foster respect and open-mindedness for other cultures. Celebrating our differences, as well as our common interests, helps unite and educate us. To understand other’s perspectives, to broaden our own, and to fully experience and educate ourselves."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
App State recognizes diversity as an essential binding agent of the interdisciplinary approach to education, as well as to the greater life experience.

# data[].attributes.body
"Referring to DEI as a concept that “promote(s) dangerous political and social activism,” DeSantis believes it espouses censorship and disproportionately antagonizes conservative voices on campus."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
As the Spring semester ends, administration across Florida's public colleges and universities will have to work quickly to descale most programs or resources related to diversity, equity and inclusion. On Monday, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a spate of bills, the most important one prohibiting Florida's public institutions from spending money on DEI initiatives, according to a press release.

Referring to DEI as a concept that "promote(s) dangerous political and social activism," DeSantis believes it espouses censorship and disproportionately antagonizes conservative voices on campus. When the governor helped revamp New College of Florida as a classical, conservative-leaning institution in January, the school swiftly eliminated its Office of Outreach and Inclusive Excellence.

"If you look at the way this has actually been implemented across the country, DEI is better viewed as standing for discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination," DeSantis said at a news conference. "And that has no place in our public institutions. This bill says the whole experiment with DEI is coming to an end in the state of Florida."

SB 266 also precludes public colleges and universities from teaching required general courses that insinuate "systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States" and that they are weaponized to sustain inequities across the country's social, political and economic environment. Moreover, the bill places higher accountability on university presidents to fire faculty.

Another bill signed into law that day prohibits state institutions from requiring faculty or students to sign DEI statements. It also requires schools to establish an Office of Public Policy Events to ensure speaker events host a range of diverging opinions on public policy.

More from UB: Are private colleges losing potential students due to a bad marketing tactic?

Academic pushback

Some believe that initiatives by Florida's politicians to limit DEI efforts constrain institutions' academic freedom.

"It's basically state-mandated censorship, which has no place in a democracy," said Irene Mulvey, president of the American Association of University Professors, according to The Washington Post.

DeSantis' flagship "Stop WOKE Act" bill in November aimed to clamp down on reviewing tenured faculty members who teach "divisive concepts." However, a U.S. district judge struck down many critical aspects of the bill as he compared it to George Orwell's famous book "1984."

Efforts targeting DEI grow nationwide

Texas

In April, Texas' Senate passed a bill requiring all state colleges and universities to close their offices pertaining to DEI. Like Florida, it would prohibit institutions from requiring diversity statements and training.

Ohio

One Ohio bill aimed to ban mandatory diversity training but recently has been modified to permit it when related to accreditation, licensing and grants.

Iowa

The Board of Regents for Iowa's three public universities is pausing any new DEI programs to review its current initiatives. One proposed bill aims to defund DEI offices and administrators.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma can very well be the next state to enact similar measures. In February, the state's secretary of education requested a detailed report on the state's spending related to DEI, a similar measure taken by DeSantis.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
DeSantis bans DEI in Florida, calling it "discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination"

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As the Spring semester ends, administration across Florida's public colleges and universities will have to work quickly to descale most programs or resources related to diversity, equity and inclusion. On Monday, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a spate of bills, the most important one prohibiting Florida's public institutions from spending money on DEI initiatives, according to a press release.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The White alone non-Hispanic population was the most prevalent racial or ethnic group for all states except California (Hispanic or Latino), Hawaii (Asian alone non-Hispanic), New Mexico (Hispanic or Latino), and the District of Columbia, a state equivalent (Black or African American alone non-Hispanic).

In 2020, the Hispanic or Latino population became the largest racial or ethnic group in California, comprising 39.4% of the total population, up from 37.6% in 2010. This differs from 2010, when the largest racial or ethnic group in California was the White alone non-Hispanic population, whose share declined from 40.1% in 2010 to 34.7% in 2020.

In 2020, we also saw shifts in the second-most prevalent group for some states.

In West Virginia, the Multiracial non-Hispanic population (4.0%) became the second-most prevalent group, surpassing the Black or African American alone non-Hispanic population (3.6%). In Wisconsin, the Hispanic or Latino population (7.6%) became the second-most prevalent group, surpassing the Black or African American alone non-Hispanic population (6.2%).

In Texas, the first- and second-most prevalent group rankings did not change between 2010 and 2020, but the difference in size between the White alone non-Hispanic population (39.7%) and the Hispanic or Latino population (39.3%) shrank to 0.4 percentage points.

For the District of Columbia, the difference in the size of the Black or African American alone non-Hispanic population (40.9%) and the White alone non-Hispanic population (38.0%) narrowed dramatically in 2020 with only a 2.9 percentage point difference.

In contrast, the District of Columbia's Black or African American alone non-Hispanic population was 50.0% and the White alone non-Hispanic population was 34.8% in 2010, a difference of 15.2 percentage points.

Finally, 2020 Census results showed that Hawaii (21.8%) was the state with the highest diffusion score, followed by Alaska (17.9%), Oklahoma (17.8%) and Nevada (16.0%).

You can explore 2020 Census diversity measures at the state and county level and compare them to 2010 patterns using the "Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the United States: 2010 Census and 2020 Census" data visualization.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Chance That Two People Chosen at Random Are of Different Race or Ethnicity Groups Has Increased Since 2010

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
2020 Census results released today allow us to measure the nation's racial and ethnic diversity and how it varies at different geographic levels.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is seen as Donald Trump's top challenger for the Republican US presidential nomination in 2024 [File: Scott Audette/Reuters]

Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a bill to block federal and state funding to programmes that aim to ensure diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) at public universities, boosting a conservative push against such initiatives.

DeSantis approved the measure on Monday, decrying DEI programmes as part of a "relatively recent" push to impose an "ideological agenda" on educational institutions in the United States.

"DEI is better viewed as standing for discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination. And that has no place in our public institutions," DeSantis said during a news conference.

The law marks the latest effort by DeSantis, who is expected to announce a presidential run in the coming weeks, to champion conservative social causes, including in education.

DeSantis is widely seen as former President Donald Trump's most serious challenger for the 2024 Republican nomination, but his poll numbers have faltered in recent weeks.

The Florida governor also has pushed greater restrictions on abortion and helped impose limits on discussions of sexuality and gender identity in classrooms.

Over the past few years, many US universities have embraced DEI programmes and training to bolster diversity in their ranks and better address the needs of minority students and faculty.

Monday's measure bans curricula that teach "identity politics" or "theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political, and economic inequities".

The legislation is aimed at curtailing education that looks at US history through the lens of racism, a view known as critical race theory.

Proponents of diversity programmes and critical race theory argue that they aim to counter institutional racism and teach an accurate version of history that highlights the hurdles African Americans and other ethnic minorities have faced.

Governor DeSantis just signed SB266/HB999 into law. Below is our statement from when the bill passed the House Floor. https://t.co/1ViUv23cfj

- Rep. Anna V. Eskamani 🔨 (@AnnaForFlorida) May 15, 2023

Democratic Florida Senator Shevrin Jones rejected what he called DeSantis's "overreach" into education. "Education ought to be about teaching kids how to think through issues, not what to think about issues," Jones said.

"The exposure to wide-ranging experiences and fresh perspectives encourages understanding and creativity. By restricting what students can learn, the state is actively suppressing students' academic and intellectual freedom."

Florida House member Anna Eskamani also called the bill a "witch hunt" after it passed in the state legislature earlier this month.

"This is a destructive law that targets diverse students like me and our ability to thrive in higher education institutions," Eskamani, who is of Iranian descent, said in a statement.

"It also suppresses academic freedom and inserts conservative political orthodoxy into the classroom."

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
DeSantis bans funding for Florida college diversity programmes

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a bill to block federal and state funding to programmes that aim to ensure diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) at public universities, boosting a conservative push against such initiatives. DeSantis approved the measure on Monday, decrying DEI programmes as part of a "relatively recent" push to impose an "ideological agenda" on educational institutions in the United States.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Allotment and Assimilation Era (1887 - 1934)

The Allotment and Assimilation Era built upon the goals of the Reservation Era by attempting to control and alter the customs and practices of Native Americans.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs' (BIA) Indian agents played large roles in the "re-socialization" of Native Americans into Anglo-American culture. In addition to providing food rations to tribal members who refused to abandon communal living for independent farming, BIA agents also assisted in the kidnapping of Indian children from their families and their enrollment in military and religious boarding schools. Such institutions were created to "whiten" Native Americans and supplant their culture and language with American ideals and English. Trauma suffered at the boarding schools has made an impact on tribes and has resulted in large loss of Native languages, culture, and traditions.

During this assimilation period, the United States began to further roll back the promises made in its treaties with Native Americans and to erode the reservation land that it previously granted. In 1887, Congress passed the Dawes Act, which provided allotments of land to Native American families. Government officials at this time believed that Native Americans would not make "productive" use of the land (i.e., engage in independent small farming), and resolved to divest them further of the best farm land on reservations to further white, western expansion. In addition to Native Americans losing the most valuable and resource rich land on their reservations, the federal government limited allotments to those who were enrolled in a tribe and featured on a tribe's rolls. The completeness and accuracy of the rolls maintained by the BIA often depended on a member's good standing with government officials. Individuals who were troublesome or failed to meet requirements were excluded, despite having apparent tribal affiliation.

The final attempt at assimilating Native Americans came in 1924 with the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act. This act provided tribal members dual citizenship in their enrolled tribe and with the United States. The passage of the act was less of a recognition of Native Americans' contributions to and place in American, but a last-ditch effort to erase Native culture.

Notable Court Cases:

U.S. v. Clapox, 35 F. 575 (1888) - This case ratified the creation of the Courts of Indian Offenses in 1883 and their use as a means to assimilate Native Americans. After a fellow tribal member rescued their friend from jail, both the rescuer and escapee were charged under federal law. The Clapox decision recognized that the Courts of Indian Offenses were "educational and disciplinary instrumentalities" to be used by the United States to control and shape the culture of tribes under the United States guardianship.

Selected Library Resources:

Katherine Ellinghaus, Blood Will Tell: Native Americans and Assimilation Policy (2017), eBook

Laurence M. Hauptman & L. Gordon McLester, The Oneida Indians in the Age of Allotment, 1860-1920 (2006), E99.O45 H38 2006

Carolyn Johnston, Cherokee Women in Crisis: Trail of Tears, Civil War, and Allotment 1838-1907 (2010), eBook

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
HUSL Library: A Brief History of Civil Rights in the United States: The Allotment and Assimilation Era (1887 - 1934)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This guide focuses on the civil rights that various groups have fought for within the United States.

# data[].attributes.body
"For some immigrants, assimilation can lead to depression and related mental health challenges. Immigrants can experience feelings of anxiety when they have to try and learn a new language, find a new job, or navigate hostility toward different ethnic groups in a new society."

# data[].attributes.body
-intro: personal anecdote+thesis
-para 1: definition of assimilation+generational gap
-para 2: psychological effects of assimilation
-para 3: introduce counterargument and introduce a better solution (acculturation) + definition of culturation
-conclusion

# data[].attributes.body
-forces immigrants to abandon their previous culture for the new one, making them lose their "distinctiveness"

-children experiencing assimilation can begin to resent their parents for being "different"

-Second-generation immigrant children play a "tug of war" between their own culture and the new one, creating a struggle of identity

-by following acculturation instead, immigrant children can grow up bilingual, learning Americas culture and also their own

# data[].attributes.body
United states has the greatest number of imigrants

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Immigration is the international movement of people away from the country where they have citizenship (usually their country of birth) in favor of a destination country where they do not have citizenship. Immigrants, often referred to as foreign-born residents, move to a new country for several reasons, including searching for economic prosperity, job opportunities, family reunification, retirement, and better access to resources.

The proportion of immigrants varies considerably from country to country, and for several reasons. Some countries are easy to immigrate to-in fact, some countries will actually encourage immigrants from the United States-while other countries are harder to immigrate to by comparison.

Top 10 Countries with the Highest Number of Foreign-Born Residents (Immigrants) - United Nations 2020:

The United States is home to the highest number of immigrants in the world. An estimated 50.6 million people in the United States-a bit more than 15% of the total population of 331.4 million-were born in a foreign country. The number of immigrants in the U.S. has increased by at least 400% since 1965. The population of immigrants in the United States is incredibly diverse, with nearly every country in the world represented among U.S. immigrants. Mexico is the leading origin country for U.S. immigrants, accounting for more than 11 million, roughly 25%, of all immigrants in the United States. Immigration, of course, played a formative role in making the U.S. the country it is today: except for those whose ancestors arrived as slaves, the majority of citizens of the "Great American Melting Pot" are descended from immigrants-and early European settlers in particular.

Perhaps the most unique entry in the top ten is the United Arab Emirates, whose 8.7 million immigrants make up nearly 89% of the country's total population. This gives the UAE one of the world's highest proportions of immigrant residents in relation to the total national population.

What is the difference between immigrants and emigrants?

The difference between the words "immigration/immigrant" and "emigration/emigrant" can be confusing. Technically speaking, the two terms are opposites, but it can be difficult to tell from their definitions. An immigrant is someone who came to the country where they now live from somewhere else. In contrast, an emigrant is someone who left their home country and moved somewhere else. In other words, the person moving is both an immigrant and an emigrant, depending upon whether the person speaking or writing the word lives in the home country or the destination country.

This nuance is often easier to understand with an example: Imagine a person who was born in South Africa, but now lives permanently in the United States. To their new friends in the U.S., that person is an immigrant, because they immigrated to-or came to-the United States. But to their old friends in South Africa, that same person is an emigrant because they emigrated from -or left-South Africa.

When used in the context of national populations, "immigrants" refers to foreign-born residents who have moved to that country and "emigrants" refers to people who have left that country to live somewhere else.

Top 10 Countries with the Highest Number of Emigrants (Former Residents living Internationally) - United Nations 2020:

India has the largest number of natives living abroad with 17.9 million people in total. Emigrant numbers are not always as accurate as immigrant numbers, mostly because most governments are not as concerned about those who leave the country as they are about those who enter and use government-funded services or infrastructure. There are exceptions to this logic, however, as countries such as North Korea and Taliban-controlled Afghanistan take a keen interest in preventing residents from emigrating.

* Data shown is for 2020.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Immigration is the international movement of people away from the country where they have citizenship (usually their country of birth) in favor of a destination country where they do not have citizenship. Immigrants, often referred to as foreign-born residents, move to a new country for several reasons, including searching for economic prosperity, job opportunities, family reunification, retirement, and better access to resources.

# data[].attributes.body
America is held by its core values of freedom, equality, and justice. Known as a "melting pot" since the 1900s, it is a nation built on immigrants and diversity. Despite this, many immigrants do not feel welcome and often resort to leaving their culture to fit into society.

Given the sources below, about the adaptation of immigrants and experiences specifically regarding Asian American immigrants, develop a position on the following topic and question: Should the United States and its citizen take further action to support cultural diversity and prevent assimilation stress among minorities?

# data[].attributes.body
blue-supporting sources

purple-opposing sources

green-neutral sources (definitions etc)

red-not using

# data[].attributes.body
Galka, Max. “Here's Everyone Who's Immigrated to the U.S.. since 1820.” Metrocosm, 18 Feb. 2017, https://metrocosm.com/animated-immigration-map/.

# data[].attributes.headline
Source E generational gap between immigrant parents and their children

# data[].attributes.subject
Source E generational gap between immigrant parents and their children

# data[].attributes.body
Immigrant parents, still with their culture and language, are unable to talk and communicate to their children, who have quickly adapted to the new culture, creating a culture dissonance.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Subject
Acculturation gaps are problematic because they make family communication and mutual understanding difficult. For adult immigrants their native language will remain primary, even many years after resettlement. Yet most children learn the new language very quickly, becoming conversationally proficient within 1-2 years, and attaining academic mastery of the language within 5-7. ⁹ When immigrant children have no formal educational instruction in their heritage language, it becomes increasingly difficult for them to discuss abstract concepts and complex issues with their parents as they mature.

Parents and children may also misunderstand one another because of cultural differences in expectations for parent and child behaviour and family relationships. Immigrant parents may endorse cultural beliefs that children must put family needs before their own, and that adolescents should delay dating or even avoid friendships with members of the opposite sex. Immigrant parents may also have strict and controlling parenting styles that in their heritage culture are considered warm and attentive to the child, ¹⁰ but that in the host culture are considered authoritarian. At the same time, adolescents may embrace the opportunity to engage in unsupervised activities and behaviours that may be normative in the host society (such as dating) but unacceptable in their heritage culture and to their parents. They may also resent strict parenting styles when they see their peers' parents practice more permissive parenting.

The "acculturation gap hypothesis" stipulates that acculturation discrepancies between parents and children create family conflict and discord. Such family conflict, in turn, leads to difficulties in children's adjustment psychologically, at school and in other life domains.
Problems
A growing number of studies assess acculturation gaps in immigrant families, but some have argued that acculturation gaps may not always occur in the direction stipulated by the acculturation gap hypothesis, and the negative impact of acculturation gaps may be overstated. 11 There is a range of ways that researchers have operationalized the acculturation gap. Measures of acculturation dissonance ask adolescents to report on their perceptions of cultural differences or conflict between them and their parents. ¹²

When computed by researchers, gaps do not always occur in the expected direction. The acculturation gap hypothesis stipulates that parents are more acculturated to the heritage culture than their children, and adolescents are more acculturated to the new culture than their parents. However, some studies have found families where adolescents are more attached to the heritage culture than their parents ¹¹ and/or parents are more acculturated to some aspects of the new culture than their adolescents. ¹ Thus, it is either the case that acculturation gaps do not occur as stipulated by the theory, or existing measures of the gap do not capture the phenomenon accurately.
Research Context
The majority of acculturation gap research is based on questionnaire studies of immigrant families. This research has largely focused on adolescents because they are in a developmental stage when many of them are embarking on gaining independence from their parents. For immigrant youth, gaining independence is also associated with forging a new cultural identity.
Key Research Questions

Do acculturation gaps predict difficulties in adolescent adjustment?

Do acculturation gaps predict family conflict or other problems in family adjustment?

Is the impact of acculturation gaps on adolescent outcomes mediated by family adjustment, such that acculturation gaps lead to family conflict, which in turn contributes to problems in adolescents' adjustment?

Recent Research Results

Do acculturation gaps predict difficulties in adolescent adjustment?

Research shows that both acculturation gaps and cultural dissonance between parents and adolescents are linked to adolescent adjustment, including depression, problem behaviours and academic achievement. Symptoms of depression were linked to parent-child acculturation dissonance for Chinese-American adolescents. ¹² Two studies found that gaps in Chinese language proficiency or use were linked to symptoms of depression for Chinese-Canadian ⁷ and Chinese-American adolescents. ¹⁶ Past-year and lifetime incidence of depression were predicted by acculturation gaps in studies of Muslim-American college students, 17 Chinese-American adolescents, and parents of Chinese descent. ¹⁸

Academic achievement has been predicted by acculturation gaps in several studies. Gaps in Chinese language proficiency predict lower academic achievement for Chinese-Americans. ¹⁶ Gaps in Chinese language use and media use predict decreased achievement motivation for Chinese-Canadian adolescents. ⁷

Contrary to expectations, Indian adolescents in Britain who were less Western-oriented than their mothers and more heritage culture-oriented than their fathers were more likely to have symptoms of internalizing disorders. ²² Similarly, Mexican-American adolescents who were more aligned with their heritage culture than their parents experience more conduct problems. 11 These studies affirm the importance of cultural gaps between parents and children for adolescent adjustment, but the nature of these gaps is opposite to what is predicted and raises questions about acculturation gap theory.

Do acculturation gaps predict problems in family adjustment?

Family conflict has been linked to acculturation gaps in a number of studies with different populations. Family conflict was predicted by acculturation gaps in Chinese language use ⁷ and behavioural and psychological acculturation ²³ for Chinese-Canadian adolescents. Father-child gaps in degree of assimilation were related to parent-child conflict for Mexican-American families. 24 Conflict was also higher in Indian-American families when parents and adolescents were not matched on acculturation style. 15 Gaps in heritage language competence predicted conflict in former Soviet ¹ and Vietnamese ⁶ American families. In addition, gaps in Vietnamese and American identity were linked to conflict in Vietnamese and former Soviet families, respectively. Finally, Chinese-American immigrant mothers who perceived larger gaps with their pre-adolescent children were more likely to report less success in parenting. ¹³

Is the impact of acculturation gaps on adolescent outcomes mediated by family adjustment, such that acculturation gaps lead to family conflict, which in turn contributes to problems in adolescent adjustment?

Parenting practices also mediate the relation between acculturation gaps and adolescent adjustment. For Chinese-American adolescents, discrepancies in heritage and American acculturation between parents and adolescents predicted fewer supportive parenting practices (inductive reasoning techniques, parental monitoring), which mediated the relations between gaps and adolescent depressive symptoms. ²⁹ For Latino-American adolescents, acculturation gaps were associated with greater family stress and less effective parenting practices, which both mediated the relation between gaps and likelihood that adolescents use alcohol and tobacco in the future. ³⁰
Research Gaps
Additional factors need to be explored that may influence the dynamics of relations among acculturation gaps, family conflict and adolescent outcomes. Conflict and poor adolescent outcomes in immigrant families may be a function, not of acculturation gaps per se, but of other contextual factors. It is plausible that well-functioning families with good communication and close relationships are able to handle acculturation gaps without disrupting family functioning. Family functioning alone is a better predictor of adolescent delinquency than acculturation gaps. ¹⁸ The gap predicted father-child conflict only in families with low father-child relationship quality. ²⁴ So acculturation gaps may function as a stressor, but well-functioning relationships between parents and children may buffer their effects. These complexities need to be unraveled through longitudinal and qualitative research that aims to understand the dynamics of acculturation gaps in immigrant families.
Conclusions Implications for Parents, Services and Policy
The implications of this line of research are that reducing acculturation gaps between parents and children may also reduce family conflict and improve child and adolescent adjustment in immigrant families. In particular, several studies have noted the importance of gaps in heritage language proficiency or use for family conflict 1,6 and adolescent adjustment. 7,16 In particular, the less likely children were to be proficient or use their heritage language relative to their parents, the more negative were the outcomes for the adolescents and their families. This finding suggests the potential importance of helping immigrant children retain their heritage language. It further suggests that parents and schools should support children's heritage language development. Services designed to reduce acculturation gaps can take a variety of forms. Schools may reach out to immigrant parents to orient them to schooling in their new culture, and in this way help reduce gaps in knowledge and understanding between the generations. ³¹ Therapeutic family interventions designed specifically to reduce the culture gap between parents and children have been shown to be effective at reducing youth substance abuse and conduct problems. ³² Finally, policies that expect children to acquire new language skills without heritage language support may be counter-productive because they create acculturation gaps that lead to family conflict and youth maladjustment.
References

1. Birman D. Acculturation gap and family adjustment: Findings with Soviet Jewish refugees in the U.S. and implications for measurement. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 2006;37(5):568-589.

2. Birman D. Measurement of the ''acculturation gap'' in immigrant families and implications for parent-child relationships. In: Bornstein MH, Cote LR, eds. Acculturation and Parent-Child Relationships: Measurement and Development. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum; 2006.

3. Birman D, Trickett EJ. Cultural transitions in first-generation immigrants: Acculturation of Soviet Jewish refugee adolescents and parents. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 2001;32(4):456-477.

4. Szapocznik J, Kurtines W. Acculturation, biculturalism and adjustment among Cuban Americans. In: Padila AM, ed. Acculturation: Theory models and some new findings. Boulder, CO: Westview; 1980:139-159.

5. Szapocznik J, Kurtines W. Family psychology and cultural diversity: Opportunities for theory, research, and application. American Psychologist 1993;48:400-407.

6. Ho J, Birman D. Acculturation gaps in Vietnamese immigrant families: Impact on family relationships. International Journal of Intercultural Relations 2010;34(1):22-33.

7. Costigan CL, Dokis D. Relations between parent-child acculturation differences and adjustment within immigrant Chinese families. Child Development 2006;77(5):1252- 1267.

8. Smokowski PR, Rose R, Bacallao ML. Acculturation and Latino family processes: How cultural involvement, biculturalism, and acculturation gaps influence family dynamics. Family Relations 2008;57(3):295-308.

9. Cummins, J. Bilingualism and minority language children. Toronto, Canada: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education; 1981.

10. Farver, J. M., Xu, Y., Bhadha, B. R., Narang, S., Lieber, E. (2007). Ethnic identity, acculturation, parenting beliefs, and adolescent adjustment. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 53:184-215.

11. Lau AS, McCabe KM, Yeh M, Garland AF, Wood PA, Hough RL. The acculturation gap-distress hypothesis among high-risk Mexican American families. Journal of Family Psychology 2005;19(3):367-375.

12. Juang LP, Syed M, Takagi M. Intergenerational discrepancies of parental control among Chinese American families: Links to family conflict and adolescent depressive symptoms. Journal of Adolescence 2007;30(6):965-975.

13. Buki LP, Ma TC, Strom RD, Strom SK. Chinese immigrant mothers of adolescents: Self-perceptions of acculturation effects on parenting. Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology 2003;9(2):127-140.

14. Rick K, Forward J. Acculturation and perceived intergenerational differences among Hmong youth. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 1992;23(1):85-94.

15. Farver JA, Narang SK, Bhadha BR. East meets west: ethnic identity, acculturation, and conflict in Asian Indian families. Journal of Family Psychology 2002;16(3):338-50.

16. Liu LL, Benner AD, Lau AS, Kim S. Mother-adolescent language proficiency and adolescent academic and emotional adjustment among Chinese American families. Journal of Youth and Adolescence 2009;38(4):572-586.

17. Asvat Y, Malcarne VL. Acculturation and depressive symptoms in Muslin university students: Personal-family acculturation match. International Journal of Psychology 2008;43(2):114-124.

18. Crane DR, Ngai SW, Larson JH, Hafen Jr M. The influence of family functioning and parent-adolescent acculturation on North American Chinese adolescent outcomes. Family Relations 2005;54(3):400-410.

19. Le TN, Stockdale G. Acculturative dissonance, ethnic identity, and youth violence. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology 2008;14(1):1-9.

20. Elder JP, Broyles SL, Brennan JJ, Zuniga de Nuncio ML, Nader PR. Acculturation, Parent-Child Acculturation Differential, and Chronic Disease Risk Factors in a Mexican-American Population. Journal of Immigrant Health 2005; 7(1):1-9.

21. Unger JB, Rita-Olson A, Soto DW, Baezconde-Garbanati L. Parent-child acculturation discrepancies as a risk factor for substance use among Hispanic adolescents in Southern California. Journal of Immigrant Minority Health 2009;11(3):149-157.

22. Atzaba-Poria N, Pike A. Are ethnic minority adolescents at risk for problem behavior? Acculturation and intergenerational acculturation discrepancies in early adolescence. British Journal of Developmental Psychology 2007;25(4):527-541.

23. Tardif CY, Geva E. The link between acculturation disparity and conflict among Chinese Canadian immigrant mother-adolescent dyads. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 2006; 37(2):191-211.

24. Schofield TJ, Parke RD, Kim Y, Coltrane S. Bridging the acculturation gap: Parent-child relationship quality as a moderator in Mexican American families. Developmental Psychology 2008;44(4):1190-1194.

25. Pasch LA, Deardorff J, Tschann JM, Flores E, Penilla C, Pantoja P. Acculturation, parent-adolescent conflict, and adolescent adjustment in Mexican American families. Family Process 2006;45(1):75-86.

26. Choi Y, He M, Barachi TW. (2008). Intergenerational cultural dissonance, parent-child conflict and bonding, and youth problem behaviors among Vietnamese and Cambodian immigrant families. Journal of Youth Adolescence 2008;37(1):85-96.

27. Hwang W, Wood JJ. Acculturative family distancing: Links with self-reported symptomatology among Asian Americans and Latinos. Child Psychiatry and Human Development 2009;40(1):123-138.

28. Smokowski PR, Bacallao ML. Acculturation and aggression in Latino adolescents: A structural model focusing on cultural risk factors and assets. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 2006;34(5):659-673.

29. Kim SY. Generational consonance and dissonance: Acculturation, parent-child relationships, and adolescent adjustment in Chinese American families. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, Davis; 2003.

30. Martinez CR. Effects of differential family acculturation on Latino adolescents substance use. Family Relations 2006;55(3):306-317.

31. D, Weinstein T, Beehler S, Chan W. Immigrant youth in U.S. schools: Opportunities for prevention. The Prevention Researcher 2007;14(4):14-17.

32. Szapocznik J, Rio A, Perez-Vidal A, Kurtines WM, Hervis O, Santisteban D. Bicultural Effectiveness Training (BET): An experimental test of an intervention modality for families experiencing intergenerational/intercultural conflict. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences 1986;8(4):303-330.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
Dina Birman, PhD, Meredith Poff, PhD Student

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Intergenerational Differences in Acculturation | Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Subject Acculturation gaps are problematic because they make family communication and mutual understanding difficult. For adult immigrants their native language will remain primary, even many years after resettlement. Yet most children learn the new language very quickly, becoming conversationally proficient within 1-2 years, and attaining academic mastery of the language within 5-7.

# data[].attributes.headline
Source G Assimilation, where did it come from? why does it exist?

# data[].attributes.subject
Source G Assimilation, where did it come from? why does it exist?

# data[].attributes.body
"Assimilation theory posited that immigrant assimilation was a necessary condition for preserving social cohesion and thus emphasized a one-sided, mono-directional process of immigrant enculturation leading to upward social mobility" (Source). Also has information on acculturation, multiculturalism, pluralism, and intersectionality theory

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
9.1 Assimilation – Immigrant and Refugee Families, 2nd Ed.

# data[].attributes.headline
surce #12 why acculturation is better than assimiltion

# data[].attributes.subject
surce #12 why acculturation is better than assimiltion

# data[].attributes.body
"Acculturation to me is learning how to keep your culture while interacting successfully with other cultures. It's like the salad bowl concept of everything stays independent but it all mingles together and enhances each other, whereas assimilation to me is more of the melting pot where you lose who you are in order to become more like the dominant culture. "

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Assimilation vs. Acculturation

Stephanie Bird-Hutchison from Wichita USD, a newcomer specialist, explains the difference between assimilation and acculturation (also available in the full documentary film):

What does it mean to teach a child in a way that's respectful of their family background? What is it take to respect the home while trying to help them learn how to navigate in our society and our culture? Acculturation to me is learning how to keep your culture while interacting successfully with other cultures. It's like the salad bowl concept of everything stays independent but it all mingles together and enhances each other, whereas assimilation to me is more of the melting pot where you lose who you are in order to become more like the dominant culture. Not expecting all of these families coming in from all over the world to suddenly look like a family that's been here for five generations like mine.

When we see kids starting to shed who they were then we see a disconnect happening at home and that creates more social issues for the family, as well as more challenges for the child to find their way and their anchor in the world. I get a lot of questions about will they be offended if I do this? And my answer is starting to become, why don't you ask them? Because they'll talk to you and tell you what is and isn't okay. So dealing with a diversity within the population - it's not a one-size-fits-all and so we need to respect that and know that one of our strengths as a country and as a people is that we do have all of these different backgrounds to draw from. And that makes us stronger.
Published April 2019
Recommended Citation: Harlow, Trina D., "Journey to Refuge: Understanding Refugees, Exploring Trauma, and Best Practices for Newcomers and Schools" (2019). NPP eBooks. 26. https://newprairiepress.org/ebooks/26

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

For more information about the eBook or film, please contact Dr. Trina Harlow, Book Editor and Film Co-Director, at drtrinaharlow@gmail.com.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Stephanie Bird-Hutchison from Wichita USD, a newcomer specialist, explains the difference between assimilation and acculturation (also available in the full documentary film): What does it mean to teach a child in a way that's respectful of their family background?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The process of incorporation of individual from an ethnic, alternative group and immigrant cluster into the leading or central custom, the tradition of the communal is that they reside where the incorporated group loses portions or taken on features of the central culture is called assimilation. Apart from this, assimilation is also the procedure of socialization.

Assimilation is the procedure where individual of a cultural alternative group assimilate through adapting to the host region's culture deciding to engage in the activities of host countries. Knowing the language of the host countries and even knowing about the right attire might seem trivial on the other hand are important for assimilating of adapting to the culture of a specific country. Understanding about the politics and history of one country are also great ideas for deciding to assimilation.

Assimilation on the other hand is the procedure of effortlessly becoming is a portion of something which already exists, enriching the personal life of the person which already exists and taking on the life. The connection is symbiotic, the whole elements contribute to each other and nourishing each element as well, this method of assimilation provides lots of advantages for everyone in the community, for people who come into this new rapport or connection and for people that have been in the country or community, whether for a number of years or several decades.

Pros of Assimilation

Spiritual and Relationship Strengthening: Assimilation or adopting leads to strengthening the relationship of the person. A lot, bring to a common misleading notion which new and latest believers should feed off that already exists.

Increased amount of individual in the labor force for performing jobs: Assimilation boosts the number of individuals in the labor force, thus result to doing the job easily and fast. This enhances the production and in return increase the gain and profit of the company.

Enhance Tourism: Assimilation also enhances tourism because people who have households try to have vacation in which host country.

Assimilation helps you to know the culture of the host country and allow you to grow as a person.

Cons of Assimilation

There is also drawback reported in the process of assimilation or adopting such as:
The Possibilities of Doing Unlawful Activities: Unemployed individual can take in selling prohibited drugs, drug trafficking, prostitution, robbery and other crime.

Possibility of Losing Your Identity: The definition behind adopting is not the passive melting pot factor, but instead you are made actively to lose your personal cultural individuality and embrace another. One of the greatest drawbacks of this procedure is that people lose the foundation of what molds him or her and a lot of things which make them exceptional as a diverse culture and individual groups.

The Possibility of Losing the Tradition: Simply because several times during adopting, individual start concentrating or attempting so hard or so much into adopting it and assimilating to the society or the environment which they start to lose their culture, tradition and identity.

Assimilation is indeed important to grow and to become familiar with another culture, but it also comes with a drawback such as losing your tradition and identity. So, prior to embarking this procedure you have to weigh the pros and cons of assimilation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The process of incorporation of individual from an ethnic, alternative group and immigrant cluster into the leading or central custom, the tradition of the communal is that they reside where the incorporated group loses portions or taken on features of the central culture is called assimilation.

# data[].attributes.headline
Source #7 US immigration system compared to other countries

# data[].attributes.subject
Source #7 US immigration system compared to other countries

# data[].attributes.body
The US system of immigration relies on family ties and visas, compared to other countries, they have immigrants for family and work purposes, should the US reform their immigration system?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What Can the U.S. Learn From How Other Countries Handle Immigration? (Published 2018)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
When you examine immigration policies around the world, the U.S. focus on family stands out.

# data[].attributes.body
Even when immigrants outperform native born Americans (Are able to move from poverty to middle class more quickly), they are still not accepted, rather they are criminalized for "taking jobs"

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Why Do Immigrants Outperform Native-Born Americans?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Motivated to succeed economically, immigrants show plenty of grit and resources.

# data[].attributes.body
"Those who advocate for cultural assimilation believe that it decreased conflict, contributes to a more cohesive national identity, and improves the social and economic opportunities for minority individuals."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Cultural assimilation refers to the process in which a minority group or culture assumes the behaviors, values, rituals, and beliefs of their host nation's majority group.

The term cultural assimilation is often used to describe immigrants who have migrated to new locations; however, it is also used to discuss Indigenous groups. As a result, it comes in two forms:

Forced assimilation

Full assimilation

People are often encouraged or pressured to culturally assimilate, but these changes are often forced. Indigenous, immigrant and ethnic minority groups often change or hide elements of their own culture, including their language, food, clothing, and spiritual practices, in order to adopt the values and social behaviors of the dominant culture.

Those who advocate for cultural assimilation believe that it decreased conflict, contributes to a more cohesive national identity, and improves the social and economic opportunities for minority individuals.

Not everyone agrees, however, and suggests that cultural assimilation contributes to the loss of culture and history, increased discrimination and violence, and damage to people's self-esteem and confidence.

While cultural assimilation is often presented as an easy solution, it contributes to other problems and difficulties.

Evolution of the Term

Initially referred to as assimilation, cultural assimilation was defined as the economic, social and political integration of an ethnic minority group into mainstream society. Since then, the assimilation process has been elaborated upon and split into several subprocesses.

Melting Pot Theory

Modern references to cultural assimilation state that it occurs when minority groups take on the culture of the majority group in order to integrate into society. Often, you'll hear people state that their country or city is a "melting pot."

What Does the Term "Melting Pot" Mean?

This melting pot theory is a common analogy used to describe cultural assimilation. It is used to describe how different cultures "melt" together to form a new culture, just as metals are heated together to form a new, stronger compound.

While the melting pot theory can be applied to any country, it is usually used to describe the American context. As a result, the melting pot theory has become synonymous with the process of Americanization.

While the melting pot theory suggests that people will integrate into the dominant society, critics suggest that this process harms diversity and leads to cultural loss. Instead, some people promote the idea of multiculturalism, utilizing metaphors such as a mosaic or puzzle in which people are able to come together yet retain their unique culture.

Voluntary vs. Forced Cultural Assimilation

As stated above, cultural assimilation comes in two primary forms:

Voluntary Assimilation

Integration into the dominant culture over generations

Occurs over time

Often in response to pressure from a more predominant culture, and conformity is a solution for people to remain in safety

Forced Assimilation

Minority groups are forced to give up their identities

Involves a threat of violence

Occurs quickly

Non-consensual

Example: The residential school system in the USA and Canada

Voluntary assimilation: This is when members of the minority group become indistinguishable from those of the dominant group. This form of assimilation occurs in stages or over the course of generations. In this form, assimilation is usually easier for the children of immigrants as they are either born, socialized, or educated in the dominant culture from a young age. It is important to remain mindful that voluntary assimilation is often in response to pressure from a more predominant culture, and conformity is a solution for people to stay safe and survive.

Forced assimilation: This is when a minority or Indigenous group is forced to give up their cultural identity, language, norms, and customs to fit into the dominant group. As a result, forced assimilation tends to occur much quicker due to the threat of violence. This process was conducted after an area changed nationality after a war; however, it has had other applications throughout history, such as the forced assimilation and traumatization of Native Americans for centuries, with residential schools operating as recently as 1996.

Acculturation can also occur. This is a form of assimilation in which people from a minority group accept some of the beliefs, customs, or behaviors of the dominant group, but still keep some of their own cultural traditions and customs.

History of Cultural Assimilation

Even though cultural assimilation has taken place throughout history, most academic research into it focuses on the U.S. context and race relations due to its history of immigration.

That said, while it is a common process attributed to the States, it is still a divisive political issue-with some politicians and the public holding the view that European immigrants assimilated quicker in the past than minority groups are doing in the present.

The United States has struggled with steady and significant hostility toward immigrants, indigenous communities, and anyone perceived as an " other." Today and historically, many White Americans in this country have viewed immigrants and ethnic minorities as a threat to the nation's culture, fearing differences among us and putting direct and indirect pressure on those who do not conform to do so, including through threats and violence.

Some immigrants, ethnic minorities, and their children may have a desire to assimilate, but lack knowledge or resources regarding how to do so. Others may not have cared about assimilating, but eventually felt the urge or pressure to blend in. Regardless of their attitude, the pressure of cultural assimilation is ever-present.

Cultural Assimilation Was Meant to Limit Self-Segregation

However, during this period of time, immigrants were encouraged to assimilate as a means to achieve social stability and economic success. It was thought that by "Americanizing," these individuals would minimize instances of "self-segregation." It was assumed that having everyone under one uniform belief system would eradicate intergroup rivalry for jobs and resources.

However, this point of view was eventually seen as problematic for various reasons. For example, scholars argued that this idea created a hierarchy of citizenship whereby those able to integrate fully were afforded more capital.

The Concept of "Passing"

In addition, those able to "pass" (meaning someone of a minority group whose physical appearance looks like the dominant group, e.g., a Latino person who looks White) as the dominant culture would be rewarded with greater benefits, while those of other ethnicities would be penalized - even though this isn't something under their control.

"Passing" is a complex phenomenon as it perpetuates racism and emotional distress as many folks who realize they may benefit from the advantages of "passing" have made them complicit in a system that oppresses and harms others.

Is Cultural Assimilation a Good or Bad Thing?

While cultural assimilation may help immigrants and ethnic minorities feel safer or more accepted by the dominant culture, research into its effects has been mixed.

For example, a 2011 study into the effects of assimilation on immigrant adolescents found that those living in non-poverty areas experienced increased educational achievements and better psychological well-being. However, there was also an increase in at-risk behavior. In contrast, they found that it negatively impacted immigrant children living in poorer locations.

A different study into immigrant households found that brothers with more foreign names faced higher unemployment rates, completed fewer years of school, earned less, and were more likely to marry foreign-born spouses. As for current discussions around cultural assimilation, they tend to focus on the psychological welfare of immigrants.

Forced Cultural Assimilation and Its Impact on Mental Health

Cultural assimilation can lead to a loss of identity and cause significant psychological stress for immigrants. These can range from homesickness to depression and severe mental illness.

In addition, the act of migration can cause an individual to experience cultural bereavement - a form of grief caused by the loss of one's culture and, thus, a core aspect of their identity. This can be further exacerbated by the loss of key cultural markers such as language, traditions, customs, and food, which can also intensify the alienation felt by an individual when trying to relate to someone (or a family member) from the country of their origin.

Effects of Cultural Assimilation

Cultural assimilation can lead to both positive and negative outcomes:
Positive

Immigrants may feel safer and a greater sense of belonging to the dominant culture

Immigrants who assimilate may experience a higher quality of living and better mental health

Negative

Those belonging to minority groups may feel a loss of identity

Minority groups may experience mental health struggles as a result of losing or becoming distant from their cultural strengths

Things to Consider When Discussing Cultural Assimilation

Cultural assimilation occurring voluntarily over time can be neutral as assimilation following migration can be helpful in connecting to and navigating a new culture.

Forced Assimilation Is a Form of Violence

However, forcing minority groups to adopt cultural practices that are not their own is problematic at best and violent at worst. After all, while cultural assimilation has been beneficial for some minority groups and the dominant cultures they come in contact with, forced assimilation has caused the violent extinction of many others. Therefore, it is vital to be as nuanced as possible when discussing cultural assimilation.

Furthermore, it is essential to reconcile with the pressures minority groups face to assimilate into host nations. For some of these individuals, assimilation may be the only means they see to succeed in society.

Therefore, it is critical for those part of the dominant group in a particular society to recognize and fight back against any attempts to force individuals to give up their culture. After all, cultural diversity can bring positive psychological and behavioral benefits.

A Word From Verywell

Cultural assimilation is a complex subject, so it is important to maintain sensitivity and consideration when reflecting upon it. Indigenous people, ethnic minorities, and immigrants often experience assimilation in different ways, so it is essential to use care when discussing and reflecting on how it occurs and the impact it may have.

By Zuva Seven
Zuva Seven is a freelance writer, editor, and founder of An Injustice!-an intersectional publication based on Medium-who writes along the intersections of race, sexuality, mental health, and politics. She has a Diploma in Health Sciences from the University of Leeds and has written for several publications, including Business Insider, Refinery29, Black Ballad, Huffington Post, Stylist, ZORA, Greatist, and many more.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Cultural Assimilation-How It Affects Mental Health

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
For assimilation to occur, minority groups are expected to adapt to the everyday practices of the dominant culture and it impacts mental health. Learn more here.

# data[].attributes.headline
Source #6 pros of assimilation, opposing side

# data[].attributes.subject
Source #6 pros of assimilation, opposing side

# data[].attributes.body
Many say that assimilation can help employment of immigrants, encourage immigrants to drop unhealthy cultural practices, and it gets everyone "on the same page at a young age". This source also has good cons such as, reducing our diversity, forces people to change their identity, minorities are less heard out in law cases and situations,

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
19 Biggest Pros and Cons of Assimilation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
If you’ve ever watched the Star Trek franchise on television or film, you may have seen a species called the “Borg.” Instead of being a standard culture, the Borg use technology to absorb relevant information

# data[].attributes.headline
source #15 definition of acculturation (B)

# data[].attributes.subject
source #15 definition of acculturation (B)

# data[].attributes.body
Acculturation refers to the adaptation process that occurs when two or more cultures come into contact. It most commonly happens when migrants move to a new culture, and involves adopting new beliefs, behaviors, and forms of culture of the dominant group in the new culture.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Acculturation and assimilations are terms in sociology that are often used interchangeably, yet, in practice, have distinct meanings and implications for individuals and societies alike.

Acculturation refers to the adaptation process that occurs when two or more cultures come into contact. It most commonly happens when migrants move to a new culture, and involves adopting new beliefs, behaviors, and forms of culture of the dominant group in the new culture.

Assimilation is a more extreme form of cultural change and involves the complete adoption of the dominant culture as well as the rejection of the previous culture.

Acculturation is voluntary and can be reversible, whereas assimilation is more permanent and irreversible. It involves adopting a complete set of values, beliefs, behaviors, and customs from the dominant culture.

Acculturation vs Assimilation

Both involve changing cultural identity, beliefs, values, and behaviors to fit into a new culture.

Acculturation allows individuals to keep their cultural identity, while assimilation requires giving up a previous identity.

Both involve learning new language, adopting new customs, changing religious beliefs, etc.

Acculturation is more conscious, while assimilation is often unconscious.

Both are evolutionary processes constantly in flux.

Acculturation is a mutual exchange, while assimilation is unidirectional.

Both can be studied individually and in a group setting.

Acculturation is reversible while assimilation tends to be permanent.

Both require direct contact with the new culture.

1. Similarities
Acculturation and assimilation share similar characteristics in that they both involve an individual or group changing their cultural identity, beliefs, values, and behaviors to fit into the culture of their new environment.
Both processes involve learning a new language, adopting new customs and habits, changing religious beliefs, participating in recreational activities and cultural events, and adjusting to gender roles (Gans, 2007).

Acculturation and assimilation are both evolutionary processes, constantly in flux. Both lead to changes in how individuals identify themselves and interact with others. Besides, both can be studied individually and in a group setting (Gurieva & Kinunen, 2019).

Both acculturation and assimilation have one thing in common: direct contact. The individuals involved in the process must directly interact and be exposed to the new culture to learn and adapt.

2. Differences
Acculturation involves adopting some aspects of the new culture, while assimilation is a complete adoption of the new culture and rejection of one's previous identity.
Acculturation allows individuals to keep their cultural identity. At the same time, assimilation requires them to give up their previous identity and completely adopt the culture of the new environment (Sam & Berry, 2010).

Another difference is that acculturation tends to be more of a conscious process, while assimilation is often unconscious. Individuals may choose to change certain aspects of their identity, while assimilation occurs more naturally and unconsciously.

Ultimately, acculturation is thought of as a mutual exchange between an individual migrating to a new culture and the old one. The immigrant can take on features from the environment they reside in a while also making their presence felt within it.

Assimilation, however, is typically more unidirectional; this process involves only individuals conforming to fit into their adopted society.

Acculturation (Definition and Examples)
Through acculturation, distinct cultures come together to create a bridge of understanding and exchange. This process results in the alteration of cultural beliefs, values, and practices for both or all groups engaged.
Acculturation is an ongoing process whereby a weaker culture adopts elements from a more dominant one. It typically occurs in situations of migration, colonization, and intermarriage between different cultures (Eller, 2020).

According to Battle (2011), acculturation is a "process by which newcomers assume the cultural attributes of the receiving country, including its language, cultural norms, behaviors, and values" (p. 8).

In this way, acculturation enables two cultures to come into contact and exchange cultural information without either culture having to sacrifice its own identity.

In simple terms, acculturation is the exchange of culture between two different groups, which results in a change in their cultural practices and beliefs.

Learning a new language: Immigrants may learn the language spoken in their new country to better integrate and understand those around them. If a person from Japan moves to the United States, they may learn English to communicate better.

Adopting new clothing styles: Upon relocating to a new country, one may opt for wardrobe changes that better reflect the local style. For instance, if an immigrant from a warmer climate moves to Norway, it would be wise-and necessary-to invest in attire suited to colder temperatures and weather conditions.

Eating new cuisine: Individuals may choose to try out new cuisines and dishes that they have not eaten before. When someone from Mexico moves to India, they may try the local foods, such as curry.

Listening to new types of music: Exposure to different cultures can lead people to listen to new kinds of music. Someone from the United States may discover a passion for K-pop when they visit South Korea and start listening to K-pop songs.

Celebrating holidays: People may start to celebrate holidays and traditions from their new home country in addition to those from their old home country. A person from India may start celebrating Christmas if they move to the United States, in addition to Diwali, the Hindu festival of light.

Engaging in different recreational activities: A person may change the type of recreation they engage in when they move to a new country. When an individual from the United Kingdom moves to Germany, they may take up skiing which is popular in the German Alps.

Changing religious beliefs: People may change their religion or how they practice it when they move to a new country. An individual from a Muslim country may no longer observe certain religious practices if they move to the United States.

Adopting different beliefs about gender roles: Exposure to different cultures may lead an individual to change their beliefs about the role of men and women. If a person from Saudi Arabia moves to the United States, they may learn about more progressive beliefs regarding gender roles and choose to adopt them.

Adapting to new parenting styles: Immigrants may choose to raise their children differently than how they were raised, incorporating elements of the culture in which they reside. A person from China may choose to raise their children in the United States by emphasizing a more individualistic approach instead of a collective one.

Establishing new social networks: Individuals may establish relationships with people from different backgrounds when they move to a new country, thus establishing new social networks. When a person from India moves to the United States, they may form relationships with people from vastly different cultural backgrounds.

Assimilation (Definition and Examples)
Assimilation is a process through which individuals of different cultures and backgrounds come to identify with and embrace the culture of their new environment.
Park (2019) states that assimilation is "a process through which individuals and groups of differing heritages acquire the basic habits, attitudes, and mode of life of a culture" (p. 31).

According to Kyeyune (2012), "assimilation neutralizes the weak culture by will or by force" (p. 29).

Through assimilation, people may learn new languages and customs, modify their beliefs and values, adopt new fashion styles, and form relationships with host culture members.

As a result, assimilation can lead to changes in the individuals' identity, behavior, and lifestyle.

So, in simple terms, assimilation is a process of osmosis by which individuals of different cultures and backgrounds come to adopt the culture of their new environment.

Learning a new language: Individuals who move from Mexico to the United States learn English to communicate and get along in their new home.

Participating in local customs: Someone from the United States who moves to France may start participating in the local custom of taking a siesta or afternoon nap.

Changing the way they dress: Immigrants may choose to dress in clothing styles that are more common in their new home country. People who move from India to Japan may start dressing in the traditional kimono instead of traditional Indian clothes.

Listening to different types of music: If an individual from Russia moves to the United States, they may completely changed their listening to different genres of music, such as hip hop or country instead of pop.

Celebrating different holidays: A person from India starts celebrating Christmas if they move to the United States instead of celebrating the Hindu festival of Diwali.

Engaging in different recreational activities: A person may change the type of recreation they engage in when they move. So, someone from Germany who moves to Hawaii may start surfing.

Changing religious beliefs: People may change their religion or how they practice it when they move to a new country. An individual from a Muslim country may no longer observe certain religious practices if they move to the United States.

Adopting different beliefs about gender roles: Exposure to different cultures may lead an individual to change their beliefs about the role of men and women. If a person from Saudi Arabia moves to the United States, they may learn about more progressive beliefs regarding gender roles and adopt them.

Substitution of traditional foods: Foods from one's home country may no longer be available in the new environment. So, a person who moves from Mexico to the United States may start eating hamburgers instead of tacos.

Change in time perception: Individuals may completely change their perception of time when they move to another culture. So, if a person from China moves to the United States, they may learn to be punctual and value time more than before.

Conclusion

Acculturation and assimilation are both processes of cultural change when an individual or group leaves their home country and moves to a new environment.

Studying a foreign language, becoming accustomed to different customs and traditions, embracing a new faith, and comprehending opposite gender roles are all components of adapting to an unfamiliar culture.

The main difference between acculturation and assimilation is the degree of change. Acculturation involves adopting some aspects of the new culture, while assimilation is a complete adoption of the new culture and rejection of one's previous identity.

Acculturation and assimilation are both important cultural change processes that contribute to a new environment's diversity.

Therefore, understanding and respecting both processes is important to foster a successful multicultural environment.

References

Battle, D. E. (2011). Communication disorders in multicultural populations. Andover Medical Publishers.

Eller, J. D. (2020). Cultural anthropology: Global forces, local lives. Routledge.

Gans, H. J. (2007). Acculturation, assimilation and mobility. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 30(1), 152-164. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870601006637

Gurieva, S., & Kinunen, T. (2019). Adaptation or acculturation: That is the question. Proceedings of the 1st International Scientific Practical Conference "the Individual and Society in the Modern Geopolitical Environment" (ISMGE 2019). https://doi.org/10.2991/ismge-19.2019.52

Park, J. B. (2019). Identity, policy, and prosperity. Palgrave Macmillan.

Pastor Stephen Kyeyune. (2012). Shaping the society Christianity and culture. Author House.

Sam, D. L., & Berry, J. W. (2010). Acculturation: When individuals and groups of different cultural backgrounds meet. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5(4), 472-481. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691610373075

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
Viktoriya Sus (MA) and Peer Reviewed by Chris Drew (PhD)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Acculturation Vs. Assimilation: Similarities And Differences (2023)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Acculturation and assimilations are terms in sociology that are often used interchangeably, yet, in practice, have distinct meanings and implications for individuals and societies alike. Acculturation refers to the adaptation process that occurs when two or more cultures come into contact.

# data[].attributes.body
"a Taiwanese American artist, started thinking he might never be perceived as “American enough,” despite his U.S. passport, living in the country for nearly two decades and English being his first language. He endured several racist incidents, including verbal harassment and anti-Asian slurs, and soon began contemplating what life could look like somewhere else.

# data[].attributes.body
opposing: Acculturation is needed to be successful in America.

Supporting: There is a large problem of cultural identity loss in America, the nation built on different cultures, minorities are playing tug of war between fitting into American society and their own culture.

# data[].attributes.headline
title: when the melting pot has no seasoning

# data[].attributes.subject
title: when the melting pot has no seasoning

# data[].attributes.body
In the United States lies a rich tapestry of robust cultures and diversity. However, among the heterogeniety, a major problem plagues its citizens; assimilation. Similar to other people of color, Asian Americans are internally and externally affected by identity crises, racism, a loss of culture, and a need to fit in.

# data[].attributes.body
Source talks about someone who simply says immigrants are fully welcome in America if they follow three things, learn the language, follow work ethic norms in America, and take pride in their American identity. These sound simple but assimilation is multidimensional and definitely much more complicated.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A few years ago Nathan Glazer posed the question: "Is Assimilation Dead?" His answer was yes, more or less-certainly as a national ideal or policy objective, though he stressed that assimilation remains an ongoing social process. While I certainly agree with Glazer that assimilation persists as a social reality, I strongly disagree that it is dead as a national ideal or policy objective. To be sure, assimilation is moribund among many of our elites, especially ethnic, racial, and minority group leaders. But as an animating force in our communities and in our national life, assimilation is alive and well.

I base this judgment not only on the available social science evidence (some of which I will review here), but also on the views and opinions of ordinary Americans whom I encounter as I travel about the country. I would also point to Peter D. Salins's widely noted Assimilation, American Style (1997). That Salins, an academic economist, wrote this book under the auspices of the Manhattan Institute and The New Republic attests to the persistence of the assimilation idea even among some of our elites.

Yet if assimilation endures as an idea, it is a very confused and muddled one. "Assimilation" has become part of the liturgy of our civil religion, and like any liturgy, we repeat it without often pausing to consider what we mean by it. I will argue here that when Americans say they want immigrants to assimilate, they may think they know what they want, but in fact they don't understand the concept or its place in our history. Indeed, if Americans better understood the process of assimilation, they might well ask for something else.

This confusion is highlighted by the contradictory assertions we hear about the assimilation of newcomers. Immigrant leaders and advocates claim that America is a racist society that will not allow "people of color" to become part of the mainstream of American life. Alternatively, it is argued that the assimilation of such individuals into that mainstream is an insidious process that robs them of their history and self-esteem. No one ever bothers to explain how both claims can be true.

Echoing immigrant leaders, nativists and restrictionists also argue that today's newcomers are not assimilating. Yet as I will argue here, there is abundant evidence that they are. How can so many Americans be mistaken about such a relatively easily verified and fundamental aspect of our national life?

What I propose is to scrutinize what is typically understood by the term assimilation and then contrast it with a more adequate conceptualization of the process. I will be particularly concerned to highlight how assimilation has been bowdlerized such that we conceive of it as a benign step toward social peace and harmony, when in fact it generates new social problems and strains.

If you were to ask the average person on the street what is meant by "assimilation," he or she would say something about immigrants fitting into American society without creating undue problems for themselves or for those already here. In Assimilation, American Style Peter Salins presents a considerably more thoughtful, though in my opinion incorrect, version of this common sense view of assimilation. Salins argues that an implicit contract has historically defined assimilation in America. As he puts it: "Immigrants would be welcome as full members in the American family if they agreed to abide by three simple precepts":

First, they had to accept English as the national language.

Second, they were expected to live by what is commonly referred to as the Protestant work ethic (to be self-reliant, hardworking, and morally upright).

Third, they were expected to take pride in their American identity and believe in America's liberal democratic and egalitarian principles.

Though hardly exhaustive, these three criteria certainly get at what most Americans consider essential to successful assimilation. But let me examine these more closely.

English as the National Language

It is not at all clear what Salins means when he insists that immigrants should "accept English as the national language." He apparently opposes designating English our official language. Yet Salins seems to have much more in mind than immigrants just learning to speak English, which is what most Americans focus on. Unfortunately, he never really elaborates.

Perhaps Salins understands that one can speak English but nevertheless remain emotionally attached to a second language-even, or perhaps especially-when one does not speak it. For example, the evidence is that immigrants and especially their children learn to speak English (even if they don't necessarily learn to write it). Yet battles over English acquisition persist. Why?

One reason is that English typically replaces the language of one's immigrant parents and grandparents. As a result, linguistic assimilation sometimes fuels efforts to regain the language and heritage that has been lost. I am reminded of a young Mexican American I met in Corpus Christi, Texas. Having just completed his first semester at Yale, this young man was pleased to be at home for the Christmas holidays and eager to tell an Anglo visitor from back East about his Mexican heritage. Since he had grown up 150 miles from the Mexican border, I assumed this fellow was more or less fluent in Spanish. So, when I happened to inquire, I was surprised to hear him suddenly lower his voice. No, he replied, he did not speak Spanish, but he considered the language a critical part of the Mexican culture he fervently wanted to hold onto. For this reason, I was assured, he would see to it that his future children would learn Spanish before English. Shortly thereafter, we parted. So I never had the chance to ask him how he intended to teach his children a language he himself did not speak.

It's easy to poke fun at this fellow, but efforts to recapture parts of a heritage that have been lost do not reflect mere adolescent confusion. Many Latino politicians and public figures grew up speaking only English, but have subsequently learned Spanish in order to maintain their leadership of a growing immigrant community.

A more subtle and intriguing example is the career of Selena, the Tejano singer who has emerged as a cultural icon among Mexican Americans since being murdered by a fan in 1995. The tragedy of Selena is that having conquered the Spanish-language Tejano music world, she died just as she was about to cross over to the English-language market. The irony of Selena is that she was raised (in Corpus Christi, it so happens) speaking English and had to learn Spanish in order to become a Tejano star.

Further evidence that English acquisition does not necessarily lead to the positive outcomes we expect, emerges from recent ethnographic research on the school performance of Latino adolescents. Several such studies report that although newly arrived students experience significant adjustment problems attributable to their rural backgrounds, inadequate schooling, and poor English-language skills, their typically positive attitudes contribute to relative academic success. Yet among Latino students born in the United States, the opposite is often the case. Despite fluency in English and familiarity with American schools, many such students are prone to adopt an adversarial stance toward school and a cynical anti-achievement ethic.

My point is obviously not that learning English is to be avoided. But insofar as it reflects assimilation into contemporary minority youth culture, English acquisition is not an unmixed blessing. In the words of a veteran high school teacher, "As the Latino students become more American, they lose interest in their school work.... They become like the others, their attitudes change."

As for the Protestant work ethic of self-reliance, hard work, and moral rectitude, there is certainly evidence that some immigrants have been adopting it. A recent study by the RAND Corporation reveals that Japanese, Korean, and Chinese immigrants enter with wages much lower than those of native-born workers, but within 10 to 15 years these newcomers have reached parity with the native-born. On the other hand, Mexican immigrants enter with very low wages and experience a persistent wage gap relative to the native-born, even after differences in education are taken into account.

Now it is not at all clear why Mexican immigrants experience this persistent gap. The RAND researchers who identified it cite several possible causes: the Mexicans' quality of education, their English language skills, wage penalties experienced by illegal aliens, and discrimination. The RAND researchers also cite "cultural differences in attitudes toward work," which of course speaks directly to Salins's concern with the Protestant ethic. Yet the fact is that we just don't know why Mexican immigrants are faring much worse than others are.

Among immigrants generally, there are other trouble signs. For example, welfare participation rates among immigrants have been climbing in recent years, though overall those rates are currently about the same as among non-immigrants. Some immigrants are clearly involved in criminal activities, though to what degree is subject to dispute. Such indicators are indeed troubling. But along with the ethnographic findings about Latino adolescents cited above, they do indicate that immigrants and their children are assimilating-but not always to the best aspects of American society.

Salins's third assimilation criterion-taking pride in American identity and believing in our liberal democratic and egalitarian values-has typically been a difficult one for immigrants to satisfy. But the problem has for the most part been not with immigrants, but with native-born Americans' perceptions of them.

The assimilation of newcomers has long been characterized by the emergence of new ethnic group identities in response to conditions in America. The classic example, of course, is how earlier this century European peasants left their villages thinking of themselves as Sicilians, Neapolitans, and the like, but after arriving here gradually came to regard themselves as they were regarded by Americans-as Italians. Later, they, or more likely their children and grandchildren, came to see themselves as Italian-Americans. Yet the fact that such group identities were one stage in the assin-tilation process was lost on most native-born Americans, who condemned "hyphenated Americans" and considered such group identities as a fundamental affront to America's regime of individual rights.

Similarly today, immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia and other Spanish-speaking countries do not come to the United States thinking of themselves as "Hispanics" or "Latinos." That is a category and a label that has come into existence here in the United States. Andjust as with European-origin groups earlier this century, Americans are troubled by this assertion of group identity and fail to understand it as one step in the assimilation process.

Still, there is one important difference between group categories like Italians earlier this century and Hispanics today. For the latter designates a racial minority group (as when we refer to "whites, blacks, and Hispanics") that is entitled to the same controversial benefits-affirmative action and the Voting Rights Act-that black Americans have been granted. These are group-based claims of an extraordinary and unprecedented nature about which Americans have reason to be anxious.

But, once again, such group claims are in response to conditions here in the United States, specifically the incentives presented by our post-civil rights political institutions. To focus on one immigrant group-Mexican Americans-I would note that Mexicans in Mexico do not agitate for the Voting Rights Act and affirmative action. Mexicans engage in such efforts only here in the United States, and they do so because our institutions encourage them to. Perhaps even more to the point, such institutions and programs, originally established in response to the demands of black Americans, have been crafted by our political elites in the name of the very same liberal democratic and egalitarian values that Salins invokes.

Assimilation Is Multidimensional

This commentary on Salins's three criteria leads to three overarching points about assimilation. The first is that assimilation is multidimensional. This point was made more than thirty years ago by sociologist Milton Gordon in his classic study, Assimilation in American Life. Yet academic and popular commentators alike continue to talk about whether this or that group will "assimilate," as if assimilation were a single, coherent process when, in fact, it has several different dimensions-economic, social, cultural, and political. Even when these different facets of assimilation are acknowledged, they are typically depicted as parts of a smoothly synchronized process that operates in lock-step fashion. In particular, it is typically assumed that the social, economic, or cultural assimilation of immigrants leads directly to their political assimilation, by which is invariably meant traditional ethnic politics as practiced by European immigrants at the beginning of this century.

But as Nathan Glazer and Daniel Patrick Moynihan observed many years ago in Beyond the Melting Pot, what makes sociological or economic sense for a group does not necessarily make political sense. Certainly today, what makes political sense for immigrants is often at odds with their cultural, social, and economic circumstances. Take the situation of Mexican Americans, which term I use loosely to include all Mexican-origin individuals living in the United States. As I have indicated above, there is evidence that Mexican Americans are having problems advancing economically. Nevertheless, there are other indicators-of Englishacquisition, of residential mobility, of intermarriage-demonstrating that Mexican Americans are assimilating socially, culturally, and to some extent even economically. In other words, the evidence on Mexican-American progress is mixed and, as I have already suggested, our understanding of the underlying dynamics is limited.

In order to advance politically, however, MexicanAmerican leaders downplay or even deny signs of progress and emphasize their group's problems. More specifically, these leaders define their group as a racial minority that has suffered the same kind of systematic discrimination as have black Americans. However regrettable and divisive, this political stance is hardly irrational. Indeed, it is a response to the incentives of our post-civil rights institutions, which have brought us to the point where our political vocabulary has only one way of talking about disadvantage-in terms of race. The resulting irony is that even though Mexican Americans are assimilating along various dimensions much as other immigrants have, their political assimilation is following a very different and highly divisive path.

Assimilation Is Not Irreversible

The second point to be made about assimilation is that it is not necessarily an irreversible process. To be "assimilated" is not to have arrived at some sociological steady state. Or to borrow from historian Russell Kazal, assimilation is not "a one-way ticket to modernity." The assimilated can and frequently do "deassimilate," if you will. I have already offered the example of language, of how linguistically assimilated Mexican Americans who speak only English may reassert the importance of Spanish in their own and in their children's lives.

As sociologist John Stone has noted: "There is a dialectic of fission and fusion that marks the ethnic history of most eras." Indeed, assimilation is not a simple linear progression, but one that moves back and forth across the generations. As historian Marcus Lee Hansen put it succinctly: "what the son wishes to forget the grandson wishes to remember." However flawed as a precise predictor of generational differences within specific ethnic groups, Hansen's basic insight remains valid: the process of assimilation is a dialectical one.

A case in point is intermarriage. Social scientists and laymen alike point to intermarriage as one of the most-if not the most-telling indices of social assimilation. (I myself did so above, when highlighting evidence of Mexican-American assimilation.) Yet when we cite these data for such purposes, we make large and not always justified assumptions about how the offspring of such unions will identify themselves, or be identified by others. For example, we point to blackwhite intermarriage as an indicator of a desirable amalgamation of the races. And to be sure, in this spirit the children of some such marriages now refer to themselves not as black or white, but as multiracial. Yet their numbers are small, and the fact remains that most such individuals tend to see themselves, and are seen by others, as black.

Another example of the dialectic of assimilation can be seen in the findings of the Diversity Project, a research effort at the University of California at Berkeley. Project interviewers were particularly concerned to delve into how minority undergraduates identify themselves ethnically and racially before and after arriving at Berkeley. Despite evident differences across groups, it is striking how many such students describe themselves in high school as having so assimilated into majority Anglo environments that they did not think of themselves as minority group members. It is at Berkeley where such individuals begin to see themselves differently.

The situation of Mexican-American students at Berkeley is particularly instructive. Though predominantly from working-class backgrounds, they typically speak no Spanish and are described as products of "sheltered secondary education." One undergraduate, who did not think of herself as "a minority" or "a Mexican" before Berkeley, recounts her surprise when she got introduced as a classmate's "Mexican friend." Another such student reports that she was not familiar with the word "Chicano" when growing up in a predominantly Anglo community in San Luis Obispo. Another student complains to the Berkeley researchers that the student body at his Jesuit high school in Los Angeles was "pretty white washed," that most of the Chicano students there spoke "perfect English," and that he and they were "pretty much assimilated." One other undergraduate, referring to his identity as a Mexican American, describes himself as being "born again here at Berkeley."

I am struck that the rapid assimilation experienced by these students parallels what I have found in my field research throughout the Southwest. In the impoverished Rio Grande Valley, right next to the Mexican border, a prominent Mexican-American physician and Democratic Party activist expressed dismay that his grown children "think like Dallas Republicans." In the barrios of Los Angeles, a persistent complaint is that Mexican grandmothers who speak little English have a hard time communicating with their grandchildren, who speak no Spanish. I have heard young Mexican Americans repeatedly criticize their parents for raising them to be ignorant of their Mexican heritage. Contrary to much of what we hear today, for many, though hardly all, Mexican Americans social and cultural assimilation are so thoroughgoing and rapid that the result is often a backlash, especially among the young and well educated who, like the Yale student from Corpus Christi, want desperately to recapture what they have lost-or perhaps never even had.

Assimilation Is Conflictual

The third and final point I wish to make about assimilation is that it is fraught with tension, competition, and conflict. I offered a glimpse of this when I earlier focused on the emergence of ethnic groups as part of the assimilation process. Whether we're talking about Italians yesterday or Hispanics today, such group identities in part signal the efforts of immigrants and their offspring to secure their place in America. Such efforts have in our history almost always been contentious. It is difficult to imagine that they could be otherwise.

Stanford sociologist Susan Olzak provides systematic evidence for this assertion. Based on her study of 77 immigrant-impacted American cities from 1877 to 1914, Olzak rejects the conventional view that intergroup conflict is caused by segregation. Instead, she argues that intergroup competition and conflict resulted from occupational desegregation. In other words, tensions are caused not by the isolation of ethnic groups but by the weakening of boundaries and barriers between groups. Olzak's perspective is consistent with the findings of Seymour Martin Lipset and Earl Raab in The Politics of Unreason. In that study of right-wing extremism, Lipset and Raab report that anti-immigrant nativism in the United States has had as much to do with the social strains of urbanization and industrialization as with anxieties associated with economic contraction. For example, both the Know-Nothings of the 1850s and the immigration restrictionists of the 1920s flourished during periods of prosperity.

Thus, it is during periods of growth when individuals have greater opportunities to break beyond previously established group boundaries. But opportunities for more interaction also lead to opportunities for more conflict. The sociologist Kurt Lewin made this point many years ago about the consequences of advances made by Jews. The historian John Higham has similarly noted that the remarkable economic advances made by Jews in post-Civil War America resulted in the harsh social discrimination they then encountered. More recently, political scientists Bruce Cam and Roderick Kiewiet point out that while claims of economic discrimination decline steadily from first- to second- to third-generation Latinos, claims of social discrimination increase. Apparently, Latino economic advances lead to increased social contacts with non-Latinos and hence more occasions for friction. Once again, we are reminded that assimilation is a multidimensional process in which gains along one dimension may not be neatly paralleled by progress along others.

Cain and Kiewiet's cross-generational finding should remind us that much of what drives the tension and conflict associated with assimilation concems the varying expectations of first, second, and third generation immigrants. A virtual truism of the immigration literature is that the real challenges to the receiving society arise not with the relatively content first generation, who compare their situation with what was left behind, but with the second and third generations, whose much higher expectations reflect their upbringing in their parents' adopted home.

Thus, economist Michael Piore, a longtime student of migration, traces the labor unrest of the 1930's to the aspirations and discontents of second-generation European immigrants to America. And this dynamic is hardly limited to foreign migrants. For Piore also points out that it was not black migrants from the South who rioted in Northern U.S. cities during the 1960s, but their childrenthat is, the second generation. In light of the foregoing, Peter Salins is profoundly wrong when he asserts: '@The greatest danger looming for the United States is interethnic conflict, the scourge of almost all other nations with ethnically diverse populations. Assimilation has been our country's secret weapon in diffusing such conflict before it occurs ...... To be sure, in the long term Salim is correct. But in the short and medium term he is wrong. As should be evident by now, the assimilation of newcomers and their families into American society has typically resulted in group competition and conflict. Moreover, today's post-civil rights political institutions transform the inevitable discontents generated by assimilation into divisive racial minority grievances.

Assimilation or Racialization?

We Americans seem to have a very difficult time grasping the contentious nature of assimilation. There are several reasons for our collective obtuseness on this point. On the one hand, immigration restrictionists focus exclusively on the strife occasioned by mass immigration throughout our history. Indeed, restrictionists are so obsessed with this aspect of immigration that they overlook that immigrants did assimilate and the nation survived and even prospered.

On the other hand, immigration enthusiasts go to the opposite extreme. They focus exclusively on the successful outcome of mass immigration and totally ignore the discord and dissension along the way. For example, reading Salins one would never know that our history has been marked by nots both by and against immigrants. For that matter one would never know that Catholic schools, which Salins correctly argues promote assimilation today, were nevertheless originally established in the nineteenth century by churchmen eager to thwart the assimilation of Catholics.

My point is that both sides of this debate ignore precisely what I am arguing-that assimilation and conflict go hand in hand. But there is another reason why we Americans have such difficulty confronting these conflicts. As I have already indicated, in today's post-civil rights environment the problems and obstacles experienced by immigrants are now routinely attributed to racial discrimination. This racialization of immigration has fundamentally altered the contours of public discourse. On the one hand, because the accepted explanation for any negative response to immigrants is "racism," many reasonable and fair-minded individuals who might otherwise be tempted to disagree with immigration enthusiasts have been scared away from the topic. On the other hand, because racialization posits a community of interest between black Americans and immigrants who are "people of color," obvious competition and conflict between black Americans and immigrants (especially the sizable Hispanic population) have been downplayed, ignored, or simply denied. In other words, today's post-civil rights ideology allows us to high-mindedly rule such group competition and conflict out of bounds-such that they are not topics suitable for serious inquiry.

What can be done about this situation? To begin, we need to get beyond the romance of immigration enthusiasts as well as the melodrama of immigration alarmists. We need to introduce a sense of realism about how we think about these issues and to face up to the turmoil and strains that mass immigration imposes on our society, particularly in this postcivil rights era.

I am reminded of Robert Park, whose research on ethnic and race relations pioneered the field of sociology at the University of Chicago earlier this century. Writing to a former associate in the wake of the 1943 Detroit race riot, Park commented: "I am not quite clear in my mind that I am opposed to race riots. The thing that I am opposed to is that the Negro should always lose."

Here are the basic elements of Park's "race relations cycle," which took competition and conflict (and then accommodation and finally assimilation) as the inevitable outcomes of group contact. For all the criticisms that have been justifiably directed against Park's perspective, it did have the singular virtue of realism.

By contrast, today we recoil in hand-wringing dismay when legal immigrants are deprived of welfare benefits. Or we cry racism when law enforcement officers ferociously beat illegal aliens. Such responses may be humane and generous-minded, but they are utterly lacking in the realism of which I speak. Do we honestly believe that millions of poor, disenfranchised immigrants can be introduced into a dynamic, competitive social and political system without their interests being put at risk? If so, we bear an uncomfortable resemblance to an enthusiastic but imprudent football coach who allows inexperienced players with poor training and equipment onto the field and then reacts with surprise and shock when they get injured.

More than just realism, Park affords us a sense of the tragic dimensions of immigration. William James, one of Park's teachers, once wrote that "progress is a terrible thing." In that same spirit, Park likened migration to war in its potential for simultaneously fostering individual tragedy and societal progress.

As in war, the outcome of the immigration we are now experiencing is difficult to discern. And this is precisely what is most lacking in the continuing debate over immigration-a realistic appreciation of the powerful forces with which we are dealing. We have heard much in recent years about the daunting experiment we have embarked upon with welfare reform. Yet our immigration policy is arguably a social experiment of even greater import-with enormous potential benefits, but also enormous risks. None of us knows for sure how these millions of newcomers will affect the United States. Easy answers about computer scientists and welfare cheats don't begin to help us address the enormity of this issue. And neither do ill-informed notions about assimilation.

[Author note]

Peter Skerry teaches political science at Claremont McKenna College. His book, Counting on the Census? Race, Group Identity, and the Evasion of Politics, was recently published by the Brookings Institution, where he is a senior fellow.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Do We Really Want Immigrants to Assimilate?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A few years ago Nathan Glazer posed the question: "Is Assimilation Dead?" His answer was yes, more or less-certainly as a national ideal or policy objective, though he stressed that assimilation remains an ongoing social process. While I certainly agree with Glazer that assimilation persists as a social reality, I strongly disagree that it is dead as a national ideal or policy objective.

# data[].attributes.body
"As an adult, I feel like their acquaintance instead of their daughter... I’m losing not only my connection to my parents but also fragments of my Chinese heritage. Can I call myself Chinese if I barely speak the language?"

"I was humiliated based on how I looked and the fact that I could speak another language. It was an easy decision to suppress Cantonese in an effort to blend in, to feel more American."

"I became furious that my parents weren’t bilingual, too... I called them hurtful names and belittled their intelligence. I used English, a language they admired, against them"

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
When I speak Cantonese with my parents now, I rely on translation apps.

No one prepared me for the heartbreak of losing my first language. It doesn't feel like the sudden, sharp pain of losing someone you love, but rather a dull ache that builds slowly until it becomes a part of you. My first language, Cantonese, is the only one I share with my parents, and, as it slips from my memory, I also lose my ability to communicate with them. When I tell people this, their eyes tend to grow wide with disbelief, as if it's so absurd that I must be joking. "They can't speak English?" they ask. "So how do you talk to your parents?" I never have a good answer. The truth is, I rely on translation apps and online dictionaries for most of our conversations.

It's strange when I hear myself say that I have trouble talking to my parents, because I still don't quite believe it myself. We speak on the phone once a week and the script is the same: "Have you eaten yet?" my father asks in Cantonese. Long pause. "No, not yet. You?" I reply. "Why not? It's so late," my mother cuts in. Long pause. "Remember to drink more water and wear a mask outside," she continues. "O.K. You too." Longest pause. "We'll stop bothering you, then." The conversation is shallow but familiar. Deviating from it puts us (or, if I'm being honest, just me) at risk of discomfort, which I try to avoid at all costs.

I grew up during the nineties in Sheepshead Bay, a quiet neighborhood located in the southern tip of Brooklyn, where the residents were mostly Russian-Jewish immigrants. Unable to communicate with neighbors, my parents kept to themselves and found other ways to participate in American culture. Once a month, my dad attempted to re-create McDonald's chicken nuggets at home for my two brothers and me before taking us to the Coney Island boardwalk to watch the Cyclone roller coaster rumble by. On Sundays, my mom brought me to violin lessons, and afterward I accompanied her to a factory in Chinatown where she sacrificed her day off to sew blouses to pay for my next lesson while I did homework. These constant acts of love-my parents' ideas of Americana-shaped who I am today. Why is it so difficult for me, at age thirty-two, to have a meaningful discussion with them? As an adult, I feel like their acquaintance instead of their daughter.

During my visits back home from California, our time together is quiet, our conversations brief. My parents ask about my life in Cantonese over plates of siu yuk and choy sum while I clumsily piece together incomplete sentences peppered with English in response. I have so much to say, but the Cantonese words are just out of reach, my tongue unable to retrieve them after being neglected in favor of English for so long. I feel emptier with each visit, like I'm losing not only my connection to my parents but also fragments of my Chinese heritage. Can I call myself Chinese if I barely speak the language?

My parents taught me my first words: naai, when I was hungry for milk, and gai, when I was hungry for chicken. I was born in New York City and spent most of my childhood, in Brooklyn, speaking Cantonese, since it was (and still is) the only language that my parents understand. In the nineteen-eighties, they immigrated to the U.S. from Guangdong, a province in southern China. The jobs they found in hot kitchens and cramped garment factories came with long hours, leaving them no time to learn English. As a result, my parents relied heavily on the Chinese community in New York to survive. I looked forward to running errands with my mother in Manhattan's Chinatown, where I heard Cantonese spoken all around me in grocery stores, doctors' offices, and hair salons. On special occasions, we would yum cha with my mother's friends and eat my favorite dim-sum dishes like cheung fun and pai gwut while they praised my voracious appetite. At home, we watched "Journey to the West," a popular Hong Kong television series that aired on TVB, and listened to catchy Cantopop songs by Jacky Cheung on repeat. Before I started school, my only friends were the children of other Cantonese-speaking immigrants, with whom I bonded over our shared love of White Rabbit candies and fruit-jelly cups. Cantonese surrounded every aspect of my life; it was all I knew.

When I first learned English in elementary school, I became bilingual quickly with help from English-as-a-second-language classes. I switched back and forth seamlessly between the two languages, running through multiplication tables with my mother in Cantonese and, in the same breath, telling my brother in English that I hated math. I attended my parent-teacher conferences as a translator for my mother despite the obvious conflict of interest; "Jenny is an excellent student over all but needs just a little more help with math," my third-grade teacher said, which I'd relay to my mom with pride only after redacting the bit about math.

It wasn't an issue that my math skills weren't strong. My parents encouraged me to excel in English class because they believed it to be the key to success in America, even if they never learned the language. English would aid in my performance across all subjects in school because that was the language my teachers taught in. But, most important, my parents believed that a mastery of English would promise a good, stable job in the future. This missing piece in my parents' lives would propel me forward for the rest of mine.

Before long, I learned that there was also significant social currency in adopting English as a primary language. Outside of E.S.L. class, I encountered the first of many "ching chongs" shouted my way. "Do you know that's what you sound like?" a kid asked, laughing. I did not know, because "ching chong" had never come out of my mouth before. Still, it went on to be a common taunt I endured, along with "No speaky Engrish?," even though I spoke English. I was humiliated based on how I looked and the fact that I could speak another language. It was an easy decision to suppress Cantonese in an effort to blend in, to feel more American. This didn't actually work; instead, I felt a diminished sense of both identities.

As I entered my teen-age years, my social circle shifted. I attended Brooklyn Technical High School, where the students were predominantly Asian. For the first time since I was a preschooler, most of my friends looked like me. My personality evolved; I became bold, rebellious, and maybe even a bit brash compared with the painfully shy wallflower I had played in the past. I dyed my hair magenta and shoplifted makeup for the thrill. Upon meeting other Chinese American students who spoke English at home with their parents, I became furious that my parents weren't bilingual, too. If they valued English so much and knew how necessary it was in this country, why didn't they do whatever it took to learn it? "Mommy and Baba had to start working. We had no money. We had no time. We needed to raise you and your brothers." All I heard were excuses. I resented them for what I thought was laziness, an absence of sense and foresight that they should have had as my protectors. When I continued to be subjected to racial slurs even after my English had become pitch-perfect, I blamed my parents. Any progress I made towards acceptance in America was negated by their lack of assimilation. With nowhere to channel my fury, I spoke English to my parents, knowing that they couldn't understand me. I was cruel; I called them hurtful names and belittled their intelligence. I used English, a language they admired, against them.

Over time, Cantonese played a more minor role in my life. When I went away for college at Syracuse University, I heard it less often. After starting my first advertising job, I spoke it infrequently. And now, as an adult living thousands of miles away from my family, I understand it rarely. It served no purpose in my life other than to humor my parents when they called me.

My fluency eroded so gradually through the years that there isn't a definitive moment when my vocabulary became less extensive, my grammar less polished. It didn't occur to me that my Cantonese was regressing well beyond the tip of my tongue until it was too late. First, my directions were off. I started saying jau, which means "right," when I meant to say zo, which means "left." This caused my dad to make wrong turns when I navigated in his car. Then, the names of colors started to escape me. "I like your green dress," I said to my mom in Cantonese once. "This is blue, silly!" she laughed. And a couple of years ago, I tried replicating my grandma's steamed-egg recipe but asked my dad how she used to pan-fry them. "You mean 'steam,' right?" He intrinsically knew how to decipher my broken Cantonese. Eventually, I struggled to construct sentences altogether, often mispronouncing words or failing completely to recall them.

The struggle to retain my first language feels isolating but isn't unique; it's a shared pain common among first- and second-generation immigrants. This phenomenon is known as first-language attrition, the process of forgetting a first or native language. My brothers are further along in this process-they have more trouble communicating with my parents than I do. They're both older than I am by nearly a decade, so they've had more time to forget. The frustration is palpable when they rummage through what's left of their Cantonese to make small talk, whether it's describing the weather or pointing out what's on TV.

My closest friends include first-generation Chinese Americans who also have fraught relationships with their parents. Our group chats read like a Cantonese 101 class: "How do you say . . . ," "What's the word for . . . ," "What's the difference between . . ." Emotional connections between a child and parent are weakened if the only language they share is also the language being forgotten. This is the case for many children of immigrants; to "succeed" in America, we must adopt a new language in place of our first-the one our parents speak best-without fully considering the strain it places on our relationships for the rest of our lives.

There are many milestones I wish I could have shared with my parents-awards I've won, career changes I've made, occasions I knew they would have been proud of. But I couldn't find the words in between the ums and ahs, the never-ending games of charades to explain the happenings in my life. Throughout my career as a strategist in advertising, gwong gou, Cantonese for "advertisement," was the furthest I got when explaining my job. After I decided to move across the country from New York City to Los Angeles, I didn't know how to say "California." Instead, I mangled the translation and strung together the Cantonese words for "other side of America, closer to China." My parents guessed correctly. " Gaa zau?" And, after my now-fiancé proposed, I mistakenly told my parents, "I'm married!" My mother thought she had missed a wedding that hadn't happened yet, all because I didn't know the word for "engaged." It took a few rounds of online searches to find the Cantonese translation (most translation apps default to Mandarin), coupled with a photo of my engagement ring, before my mother understood.

It's deeply disorienting to have thoughts that I so eagerly want to share with my parents but which are impossible to express. Cantonese no longer feels natural, and sometimes even feels ridiculous, for me to speak. My parents and I have no heart-to-heart conversations, no mutual understanding, on top of cultural and generational gaps to reckon with. My mother has a habit of following her sentences with "Do you understand what I'm saying?" More often than not, I don't. She hasn't mastered translation apps yet, but, like me, she'll resort to using synonyms and simpler phrases until I'm able to piece her words together. My heart aches, knowing there's a distance between us that may never fully be bridged.

On my mom's sixty-fourth birthday, at the peak of the pandemic, I became increasingly anxious over her mortality, compounded by the preëxisting health conditions that put her more at risk. My parents may look younger than their ages suggest, but there's no avoiding the fact that we have a limited amount of time together. Did I really want to spend the rest of our lives with a language barrier between us? I made it a goal to relearn Cantonese, and, ultimately, rebuild the relationship with my parents. I attempt conversations with the kind women behind the bun counter at Taipan, my favorite bakery in Manhattan's Chinatown, or the waiters at East Harbor Seafood Palace, my go-to Cantonese restaurant in Brooklyn. I listen to Jacky Cheung these days on Spotify instead of a cassette tape and transport myself back to my parents' living room. I watch Wong Kar-wai movies like " In the Mood for Love " and hang on to each of Maggie Cheung's beautifully spoken words, repeating them over and over until I get the tones just right. But, most of all, I call my parents and stammer through more meaningful conversations with them, no matter how challenging it gets.

Looking back, forfeiting the language passed on to me from my parents was the cost of assimilation. I don't view this as a blemish on my family's narrative but rather as a symbol of our perseverance. I feel pangs of guilt when I have trouble interacting with my parents, but I remind myself not to be discouraged. During a recent chat, I mentioned a fund-raiser that I had hosted for Heart of Dinner, an organization that delivers fresh meals and groceries to Asian seniors experiencing food insecurity in New York City. I deployed all of the translation tools in my arsenal to explain my motivation for fund-raising, fumbling through one of our longest conversations. The nuances would be lost in translation, but I punched the words in anyway: anti-Asian violence, isolation, elderly Asians afraid of leaving home, pandemic. It was a hot papier-mâché mess of an explanation, but, like my blatantly incorrect request for my grandmother's egg recipe, they still understood. " Gum ho sum! " Such a good heart.

Our weekly calls are livelier now. I have a backlog of topics and no idea how to broach them, but, armed with my phone and a bit of patience, I'm up for the challenge. Though Cantonese no longer feels natural for me to speak, it will always be my first language-even if it takes a few translation apps and a lifetime for us to get reacquainted.

New Yorker Favorites

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Jenny Liao writes about the struggle to retain her first language, Cantonese-and the related ability to communicate with her parents-as she grew up in Brooklyn.

# data[].attributes.headline
source #3 definitions and parenting tips

# data[].attributes.subject
source #3 definitions and parenting tips

# data[].attributes.body
Has definitions for acculturation and immigration terms, along with parenting tips and solutions for decreasing this acculturation stress.

# data[].attributes.body
"These second generation immigrants are raised in an environment where they will constantly be torn between the heritage and host culture of what they learn in the home and at school (Stroink et al, 2009, p. 45)... second generation children may be forced into a schizophrenic-like existence if they do not adapt to the challenge of becoming multilingual (Portes, Rumbaut, 2001, p. 113)... many immigrant parents choose not to teach their child their heritage language or culture... these second-generation immigrants lose their ability to relate to their family and heritage culture...  Their assimilation into the U.S. American culture turns to resentment towards the host country because they realize that their parents and communities often occupy the lowest standard of living within the country (Portes, Rumbaut, 2001, p. 9)."

# data[].attributes.headline
Source #2 The US not supporting the cultures of immigrants

# data[].attributes.subject
Source #2 The US not supporting the cultures of immigrants

# data[].attributes.body
"Canada and Australia, who have entire ministries devoted to the heritage and cultures of immigrants, the U.S. simply directs its mass of immigrants to the Department of Homeland Security...  In efforts to blend in, immigrants feel the immediate push to learn English and many decide to no longer use their native tongue. "

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Cultural Identity and Heritage Languages

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Cultural Identity and Heritage Languages

# data[].attributes.body
"All across Asia, I see hyphenated Americans becoming repats. Chinese, Indians, Pakistanis, Vietnamese, Uzbeks, Burmese and other well-settled Americans now see opportunity where once there was only repression and depravity. They’re taking their American skills back to their homelands to build factories, upgrade real estate, start schools, launch tech incubators and be close to extended family."

# data[].attributes.body
"But spurred by a desire for connection and a fear of isolation, as well as financial insecurity and skyrocketing rent prices in major urban cities across Canada and the U.S over the past few years means that, even before the pandemic, millennials were flocking to their childhood homes.

For diaspora Asians, making this choice presents a host of benefits: “It's much cheaper to maintain the one household as opposed to five different households because you're cooking together, you're eating together,” Das Gupta said. But the maintenance and transference of cultural practices like language and networks is an equally valuable advantage for second-generation family members who are culturally removed from their family’s homeland. “If younger kids are moving in with their parents then they also have connections with the larger extended family and culture,” Das Gupta said."

reconnect with culture.....

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Asians Moved Back Home En Masse: Then, Something Beautiful Happened

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
“I honestly didn’t expect to love it as much as I did.”

# data[].attributes.body
"But today, many Asian Americans — most of them of East Asian descent — are moving “back” to Asia, citing better job opportunities abroad and the desire to experience life in Asia, as well as anti-Asian racism and other social problems at home. While it’s a trend that began before Covid-19, the United States' mishandling of the pandemic and the ability to work remotely gave young people more motivation to do so."

there are reasons pushing and pulling asian Americans

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
After Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, KEFF, a Taiwanese American artist, started thinking he might never be perceived as "American enough," despite his U.S. passport, living in the country for nearly two decades and English being his first language. He endured several racist incidents, including verbal harassment and anti-Asian slurs, and soon began contemplating what life could look like somewhere else.

When an opportunity arose to make a film in Taiwan in summer 2019, he took it.

"I've tried being American, and it doesn't seem like that's going to work out," KEFF, 30, told NBC Asian America. "Why don't I try being Taiwanese?"

His film, "Taipei Suicide Story," was selected for the Cannes Film Festival last year.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Asian immigration to the U.S. surged. Many came for job opportunities, higher education and to make a better life for their children, and they often became naturalized citizens.

But today, many Asian Americans - most of them of East Asian descent - are moving " back" to Asia, citing better job opportunities abroad and the desire to experience life in Asia, as well as anti-Asian racism and other social problems at home. While it's a trend that began before Covid-19, the United States' mishandling of the pandemic and the ability to work remotely gave young people more motivation to do so.

Compared to Covid-19 concerns and personal factors, "the visibility of the anti-Asian hate and violence came much slower," Lok Siu, associate professor of Asian American and Asian diaspora studies at the University of California, Berkeley, said.

According to Siu, concern about anti-Asian hate didn't become mainstream until late last year or the beginning of this year, and many Asian Americans decided to move last summer. These moves are most likely temporary.

For Clara Park, a rising junior at Yale University, the pandemic and the switch to virtual learning spurred her decision to take a gap year and move to South Korea.

"I hated online classes when I was taking them in the spring," Park said.

Now she works as a production intern on "Times," a time travel drama.

But her responsibilities extend beyond her job. As the only person in her immediate family in Korea, she has the added duty to "act as a representative" at extended family gatherings, such as birthdays or traditional grave visitations.

After more than six months there, she's reconsidering her post-graduation plans. Before, she didn't think she could plant roots in Korea due to language barriers, but now, doing so not only feels feasible but desirable.

For others, moving to Asia was less of a choice. In late January 2020, Noniko Hsu, a professional flutist who has been performing on cruise ships since graduating from the University of Michigan, was ready to start a new contract. But a couple of days before she planned to fly out from Taiwan to meet her ship, she received an email telling crew members from Asia not to come due to Covid-19.

"We are not able to sign on any Taiwanese residents if they have been in Thailand in the past 15 days," the email read. She wrote back to clarify that Taiwanese people are from Taiwan, not Thailand, but she never received a response. So Hsu watched the pandemic progress while working a job as an events coordinator for a hotel in Kaohsiung.

On top of the expected language and cultural differences, many find that relocating to Asia raises questions about immigration, privacy and their future careers. Some renounced or never pursued citizenship in these countries to avoid mandatory military service. Others have little to no connection to the countries they're now in. While some feel lucky to escape the pandemic, many also grapple with the privilege that allows them to be in Asia in the first place.

Melody Chen is a student taking a gap year to enroll in engineering classes in Chinese and apply for Taiwanese citizenship. In addition to avoiding Covid-19 and wanting to improve her Chinese, she wanted to experience life in Taiwan for a couple of months to see if it was somewhere she'd "want to consider living in the future."

"I just feel so disillusioned with the idea of America," Chen said. "People can go bankrupt with a medical bill - that does not feel like an American dream."

But she acknowledged this decision comes with risks of transmitting Covid-19 to the local population, something people were quick to remind her about when she posted a video to TikTok documenting her journey to Taiwan.

Until recently, places like Taiwan and Singapore remained largely unaffected by Covid-19, making them desirable locations to escape the pandemic. Some Asian Americans have opted to continue work or study at U.S.-based companies and universities, despite the 13- to 16-hour time difference. In their free time, they attended concerts, went clubbing and ate indoors at restaurants earlier in the year while much of the U.S. was in lockdown.

But the motivation to avoid Covid-19 restrictions has been complicated by the surges in cases in several Asian countries this spring, which may drive some to return home as the U.S. reopens thanks to vaccine availability. While some moved abroad during the pandemic, Siu said only a fraction of the Asian American community is able to do so.

It wasn't every Asian American who can have access to that kind of mobility," she said. Those who did so represent an upwardly mobile, "elite population of transnationals who have the privilege of being mobile across these different spaces, and the ability to move rapidly and respond to situations like this."

This kind of mobility isn't exclusive to Asian Americans. At the beginning of the pandemic, Asians who had means were also moving to the U.S., and many Americans who lived in urban hotspots, such as Ne w York City, moved out to less densely populated areas, where they had more space to quarantine.

Annabelle Pan, 21, recognized her privilege in having a U.S. passport, and the ease it gave her in entering Singapore in January. After working in a lab tracking the coronavirus in wastewater in the U.S. last fall, she's transitioning to a six-month research project in Singapore interviewing Chinese migrant workers about their healthcare experiences.

"On paper it looks like I'm doing something service-oriented which I do want it to be," Pan said from her quarantine hotel room. "But this was for my own mental health to a huge degree."

She said she's grateful for the institutional support she's received, something she said wasn't available to her own mother when she immigrated to the U.S. about 25 years ago.

For many, living in their parent's country of origin has offered new insights. Sunny Huang extended her 2019 Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship in Taiwan to continue working with children in the indigenous community. She said experiencing "a bit of where they came from" has given her an appreciation for "the practical decisions" her parents made to survive in the U.S. which involved leaving their community and traditions behind.

"In the U.S.," she said, we don't get to see how much they lose."

Beyond familial insights, many are finding that the United States looks different from the country they left. Covid-19, mass shootings, and the continued rise in anti-Asian hate crimes make the prospect of returning complicated.

Helen Li, 24, who had been working in Asia before the pandemic, went on a trip to Nepal in February last year. She planned on staying for three weeks, but after borders closed, she was faced with the choice of returning to the U.S. or sheltering in place. She chose Nepal, where she's been working remotely ever since, and her time there has changed her perspective on happiness and her Asian American identity.

"A lot of times I've defined my identity as producing something - like the more of this you do, the better you are," Li said. After living in Nepal, she's found joy in slowing down and in activities like making soy milk from scratch - something she used to do with her father but stopped doing because her time was "more valuable in other places."

Due to Covid-19 visa restrictions, Li might be forced to move back to the U.S. in the next couple of months, and she's afraid of burning out from an unrelenting news cycle and the culture of productivity.

In the long term, it remains to be seen what the big picture implications of these moves might be. Factors such as one's ability to speak the local language, the economy, and the pandemic all impact the lessons the individuals will take from their time in Asia.

"I wonder if that's going to make a - hopefully positive - impact for Asian American folks," said Wen Liu, an assistant research fellow at the InAcademia Sinica institute of Ethnology, Taiwan, who herself moved from New York to Taiwan last year. Given racism and the pressure to assimilate that many grow up with, she hopes that Asian Americans who have spent unexpected time in Asia can find a "different way of relating to Asian culture that's not so static or so - in a way - shameful."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Asians in U.S. share reasons they're now looking at opportunities abroad

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
After Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, KEFF, a Taiwanese American artist, started thinking he might never be perceived as "American enough," despite his U.S. passport, living in the country for nearly two decades and English being his first language.

# data[].attributes.headline
source A national library of medicine: the adaption of the immigrants in america

# data[].attributes.subject
source A national library of medicine: the adaption of the immigrants in america

# data[].attributes.body
The second generation plays a tug of war with the assimilation of growing up in America and their own cultural values; this causes the second and third generations to be dissonant with their own language and culture.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Abstract

This paper summarises a research program on the new immigrant second generation initiated in the early 1990s and completed in 2006. The four field waves of the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (CILS) are described and the main theoretical models emerging from it are presented and graphically summarised. After considering critical views of this theory, we present the most recent results from this longitudinal research program in the forum of quantitative models predicting downward assimilation in early adulthood and qualitative interviews identifying ways to escape it by disadvantaged children of immigrants. Quantitative results strongly support the predicted effects of exogenous variables identified by segmented assimilation theory and identify the intervening factors during adolescence that mediate their influence on adult outcomes. Qualitative evidence gathered during the last stage of the study points to three factors that can lead to exceptional educational achievement among disadvantaged youths. All three indicate the positive influence of selective acculturation. Implications of these findings for theory and policy are discussed.

Keywords: segmented assimilation, selective acculturation, significant others, cultural capital, second generation

Introduction

Back in 1990 when Rubén Rumbaut and Alejandro Portes launched a longitudinal study of the second generation, the field of immigration studies in American social science was still not very popular and the bulk of it concentrated on adult immigrants, particularly the undocumented. The reason that led us to turn attention to the children was the realization that the long-term effects of immigration on American society would be determined less by the first than by the second generation and that the prognosis for this outcome was not as rosy as the dominant theories of the time would lead us to believe. First generation immigrants have always been a flighty bunch, here today and gone tomorrow, in the society, but not yet of it. By contrast, their U.S.-born and reared children are, overwhelmingly, here to stay and, as citizens, fully entitled to 'voice' in the American political system (in Hirschman's [1970] sense of the term). Hence, the course of their adaptation will determine, to a greater extent than other factors, the long-term destiny of the ethnic groups spawned by today's immigration.

In a prescient article, Gans (1992) argued that the future of children of immigrants growing up at present in America might not be as straightforward as the optimistic conclusions derived from the then-dominant assimilation perspective. Gans noted that many immigrants came from modest class backgrounds, bringing very scarce human capital that did not equip them to steer their offspring around the complexities of the American educational system. In an increasingly knowledge-based economy, children of immigrants without an advanced education would not be able to access the jobs that provided them with a ticket to the upper-middle classes and may stagnate into manual, low-wage work not too different from that performed by their parents. Those unwilling to do so because of heightened American-style aspirations would live frustrated lives or, more poignantly, would be tempted to join the gangs and drug culture ravaging American inner cities.

Portes and Rumbaut had just completed the first edition of Immigrant America: A Portrait (1990) and it became clear that Gans was on to something: the condition of today's children of immigrants stood in need of serious scrutiny. Accordingly, we decided to launch an empirical study of the question on the basis of a large sample of second generation students in the school systems of two of the main metropolitan areas of immigrant concentration -Miami/Ft. Lauderdale and San Diego. In 1992, Portes and Zhou published a theoretical article that sought to bring together Gans' premonitions with what we had learned so far from our preliminary studies.

The argument was that the imagery of a uniform assimilation path did not do justice to what was taking place on the ground. Instead, the process had become segmented into several distinct paths, some leading upwards but others downward. These alternative outcomes reflect the barriers to adaptation encountered by second generation youths in today's America and the social and economic resources to confront them that they and their families possess ( Portes and Zhou 1992).

By 1996, the first survey of the Children of Immigrants' Longitudinal Study (CILS) was completed and analyzed and Rumbaut and Portes could present the results, along with a more refined version of the segmented assimilation model, in the second edition of Immigrant America, published in the same year. Simultaneously, these two authors were completing the second follow-up survey of CILS, together with a survey of our respondents' parents. Results of the full study appeared in a set of two volumes, Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation ( Portes and Rumbaut 2001) and Ethnicities: Children of Immigrants in America ( Rumbaut and Portes 2001). The following section summarises the revised theoretical model advanced in these books as background for the presentation of the most recent findings based on the same study.

Segmented Assimilation: The Model

The theory of segmented assimilation consists of three parts: a) an identification of the major exogenous factors at play; b) a description of the principal barriers confronting today's children of immigrants; c) a prediction of the distinct paths expected from the interplay of these forces. Exogenous factors can be conceptualised as the principal resources (or lack thereof) that immigrant families bring to the confrontation with the external challenges confronting their children. These factors are: 1) the human capital that immigrant parents possess; 2) the social context that receives them in America; and 3) the composition of the immigrant family. Human capital, operationally defined by formal education and occupational skills, translates into competitiveness in the host labor market and the potential for achieving desirable positions in the American hierarchies of status and wealth. The transformation of this potential into reality depends, however, on the context into which immigrants are incorporated. A receptive or at least neutral reception by government authorities; a sympathetic or at least not hostile reception by the native population; and the existence of social networks with a well-established and prosperous co-ethnic community pave the ground for the possibility of putting to use whatever credentials and skills have been brought from abroad.

Conversely, a hostile reception by authorities and the public and a weak or non-existent co-ethnic community handicaps immigrants and makes it difficult for them to translate their human capital into commensurate occupations or to acquire new occupational skills. Modes of incorporation is the concept used in the literature to refer to these tripartite (government/society/community) differences in the contexts that receive newcomers ( Portes and Rumbaut 2001; Haller and Landolt 2005). Lastly, the composition of the immigrant family has also proven to be highly significant in determining second generation outcomes. Parents who stay together, extended families where grandparents and older siblings play a role at motivating and controlling adolescents have a significant role in promoting upward assimilation. Conversely, broken families, where a single parent struggles with conflicting demands leaving children to their own devices, have exactly the opposite effect ( Zhou and Bankston 1998; Kasinitz et. al. 2001; Portes and Rumbaut 2001).

Figure 1 graphically summarises this discussion, outlining both the discrete adaptation paths and the key determinants of segmented assimilation. Contrary to some misinterpretations of the model (to be discussed below), the figure makes clear that several distinct paths of adaptation exist, including upward assimilation grounded on parental human or social capital, stagnation into working-class menial jobs, and downward assimilation into poverty, unemployment, and deviant lifestyles. The latter two options are more common among offspring of poor and poorly-received migrants, including, in particular, those who arrived without legal status.

The barriers that confront children of immigrants can also be summarised as racism, bifurcated labor markets, and the existence of alternative deviant lifestyles grounded on gangs and the drug trade. By American standards, the majority of today's second generation is non-white, being formed by children of mestizo, black, and Asian parents whose physical features differentiate them from the dominant white American majority. Social scientists know that race and racial features have no intrinsic significance. Their meaning is assigned to them in the course of social interaction. In such a racially-sensitive environment as that of American society, physical features are assigned major importance. They then go on to affect, sometimes determine, the life chances of young people. Children of black and mulatto parents find themselves particularly disadvantaged because of the character of the American racial hierarchy ( Geschwender 1978; Wilson 1987; Massey and Denton 1993).

With the onset of massive de-industrialization and the advent of a service-based economy, the U.S. labor market has become progressively bifurcated into a top-tier of knowledge-based occupations requiring computer literacy and advanced education and a bottom tier of manual occupation requiring little more than physical strength. This bifurcation spells the end of the previous pyramidal structure of unskilled, semi-skilled, and skilled industrial occupations that served so well to promote the inter-generational mobility of earlier European immigrants and their descendants ( Bluestone and Harrison 1982; Wilson 1987; Loury 1981).

The new 'hourglass' labor market created has been accompanied by growing economic inequality, transforming the United States from a relatively egalitarian society to one where income and wealth disparities have come to approach Third World levels. For new entrants into the labor force, including children of immigrants, this stark bifurcation means that they must acquire in the course of a single generation the advanced educational credentials that took descendants of Europeans several generations to achieve. Otherwise, their chances to fulfill their life's aspirations would be compromised, as few opportunities exist between the low-paid manual occupations that most immigrant parents occupy and the lofty, highly-paid jobs in business, health, the law and the academy that these parents earnestly wish for their offspring. Without the costly and time-consuming achievement of a university degree, such dreams are likely to remain beyond reach ( Hirschman 2001; Massey and Hirst 1998).

Failure to move ahead educationally and occupationally in the second generation carries an added risk. Under 'normal' circumstances, youths who cannot navigate the educational system could simply move laterally, entering jobs comparable to those occupied by their parents. Inter-generational lack of mobility and second generation stagnation into working-class occupations actually happens and may well be the normative path for the offspring of immigrants disadvantaged by low parental human capital and a negative mode of incorporation ( Perlman 2004; Lopez and Stanton-Salazar 2001; Rumbaut 1994; 2005).

An even less desirable alternative befalls youths who, dissatisfied with the prospect of toiling at low-wage, dead-end jobs all their lives, look toward alternatives readily provided by deviant activities and organised gangs. Students attending poor inner-city schools are regularly exposed to these alternatives that convey the lure of quick profits and a 'cool' lifestyle, bypassing the white-dominated mainstream mobility channels. This illusion quickly translates, for most, into a life of violence, drug use, jail sentences, and even premature death ( Vigil 2002). This path has been labeled downward assimilation because the learning and introjection of American cultural ways do not lead for these youths into upward mobility but precisely the opposite ( Fernández-Kelly and Konczal 2005).

The interaction among exogenous factors influencing second-generation adaptation and the barriers posed by racism, bifurcated labor markets, youth gangs and the drug trade do not translate in a straightforward fashion into the distinct adaptation paths portrayed in Figure 1 . Instead, there are a series of intervening outcomes reflected in the different pace of acculturation across generations. The children of professionals and other high human capital immigrants frequently undergo a process of consonant acculturation where parents and children jointly learn and accommodate to the language and culture of the host society. Others from similar backgrounds or with lower levels of human capital, but ensconced in strong co-ethnic communities undergo selective acculturation, where learning of English and American ways takes place simultaneously with preservation of key elements of the parental culture. Fluent bilingualism in the second generation is a good indicator of this eclectic path ( Portes and Hao 2002).

Alternatively, youths from working-class migrant families that lack strong community supports may experience dissonant acculturation where introjection of the values and language of the host society is accompanied by rejection of those brought and associated with their parents. To the extent that parents remain foreign-language monolinguals, dissonant acculturation leads to rupture of family communications, as children reject use of a non-English language and, more importantly, reject parental ways that they have come to regard as inferior and even embarrassing ( Portes and Hao 2002; Zhou and Bankston 1996, 1998).

While dissonant acculturation does not necessarily produce downward assimilation, it makes this outcome more probable because the breakdown in family communications leads to parental loss of control and, consequently, the inability of families to guide and control their offspring. Conversely, consonant and, especially, selective acculturation are associated with positive outcomes because youths learn to appreciate and respect the culture of parents and because command of another language gives them a superior cognitive vantage point, as well as a valuable economic tool ( Peal and Lambert 1962; Portes and Hao 2002). Figure 2 presents an alternative and more refined model of segmented assimilation that incorporates these intervening generational outcomes.

Critiques

The segmented assimilation model has not been without its critics. In particular, two authors, Perlmann and Waldinger, have taken issue with the model by arguing, first, that the situation and challenges confronting children of immigrants today are not too different from those experienced by offspring of earlier European immigrants and, hence, that a reconceptualization of the process is unnecessary ( Waldinger and Perlmann 1998). Second, that there is little evidence of second generation stagnation or downward assimilation among contemporary children of immigrants.

To bolster these points, these authors have undertaken a series of empirical studies. Perlmann (2005) compared the assimilation process of Italian immigrants and their descendants at the beginning of the twentieth century and Mexicans at the end. Waldinger and his associates (2007) analyzed the labor market performance of Mexican-American youths, the largest second-generation group in the United States and one deemed at significant risk of downward assimilation. Ultimately, results of these studies turn out to be generally compatible with the segmented assimilation model and to support its principal tenets. Perlmann's study shows that the comparison between 'Italians then, Mexicans now' is strained by the very different historical contexts faced by each group. Whatever the disadvantages that they confronted, and there were many, Italian immigrants never faced the generalised stigma and insecurity of illegal status. Further, they arrived to meet the labor needs of an expanding industrial economy which offered, to them and their offspring, multiple opportunities for advancement. These opportunities did not depend on achievement of a college education since they occurred in skilled industrial trades.

In one striking chart, Perlmann attempts to estimate the ethnic wage disadvantage due to education of South/Central Europeans and Mexicans relative to native whites by multiplying the average standardised gap of education for both immigrant groups by the wage returns to education in 1950 (for the children of Europeans) and 2000 (for the children of Mexicans). The analysis finds that Mexican-Americans are doubly handicapped, both by their lower educational achievement and by the much higher returns to education at the present time. Hence, the 'Mexican [second generation] brings their great handicap in educational profile into the labor market in the worst possible context, when the returns to education are higher than at any point from 1940 to 2000' ( Perlmann 2005:55).

In the end, this author finds that contemporary high school dropout rate among Mexican-Americans are so far higher than among native whites and even native blacks as to prompt serious concern for the future: 'Mexican-American dropout rates should bring to mind the warnings of the segmented assimilation hypothesis: that an important part of the contemporary second generation will assimilate downwards' ( Perlmann 2005: 82-83).

In fact, the theory asserts that downward assimilation into underclass-like conditions is just one possible outcomes of the process and that an alternative, indeed more common result among the offspring of disadvantaged labor immigrants is stagnation into the working-class (see Figure 1 ). This is actually the principal result emerging from Waldinger et. al.'s (2007) analysis. They find that, while most Mexican-American youths work for a living, their occupations are overwhelmingly modest and low-paying, not too different from those held by their parents. That result accords with the low average levels of educational achievement among this group detected in Perlmann's analysis. In the end, the vigorous initial critique of the segmented assimilation model by these authors turns out to be quibbles at the margin, for their own evidence supports its principal tenets.

The possibility that a significant minority of the contemporary second generation experiences downward assimilation - signaled by such events as school abandonment, unemployment, teenage childbearing, and arrest and incarceration - is more than of purely academic interest. Given the size of this population, even a minority experiencing these outcomes will have a significant impact in the cities and regions where it concentrates. The following sections present evidence from the third and last wave of CILS that bears directly on this question and, by the same token, puts the original model to a more rigorous empirical test. The segmented assimilation model predicts two basic things: first, that downward assimilation, as indexed by the above series of outcomes, exists and affects a sizable number of second generation youths; second, that incidents of downward or, for that matter, upward assimilation are not random but are patterned by the set of exogenous causal determinants identified by the model. We present results bearing on both issues.

Findings

a. Adaptation Outcomes by Nationality

In 2002, the third and final CILS survey was conducted. By this time, the average age of the sample was 24. Hence, adaptation outcomes measured in this survey are 'hard' in the sense of gauging objective events in the lives of young persons - from level of education completed to incidents of arrest and incarceration. It is thus possible with these data to test the predictions advanced by the segmented assimilation model, as well as its overall structure. The survey retrieved a total of 3,564 cases, approximately 85 percent of the preceding one and close to 70 percent of original respondents. There is evidence of bias in the final follow-up which underrepresented youths from lower SES families and who grew up without both biological parents present. It is possible, however, to adjust for this source of bias by applying a correction for selectivity on the basis of data from the original survey. The following results have been corrected accordingly.

The existence of downward assimilation in the second generation can be equated with the series of outcomes outlined previously: school abandonment, unemployment, poverty, early childbearing, and incidents of arrest and incarceration. CILS-III contains indicators of all these outcomes. Table 1 and ​and2, 2 , which refer respectively to the first and second generation, present the results broken down by nationality. The nine national groups identified in the table are representative of over 80 percent of the contemporary immigrant population of the United States. Smaller nationalities are grouped in the 'other Latin,' 'other Asian,' and 'other' categories.1

Table 1

Nationality

First Generation

Percent Less than High Schoo1¹

Percent College Graduates¹

Modes of Incorporation²

Annual Average Incomes³

Percent in Professional/Executive Occupations

Percent Stable Families⁴

Table 2

Nationality

Education

Family Income

Unemployed⁵

Has had Children

Incarcerated

N

Average Years

High School or Less %

Mean $

Median $

%

%

Total %

Males %

There are good reasons to present these results tabulated by national origin. Immigrant groups differ markedly in the three exogenous factors identified by the model - human capital, family composition, and modes of incorporation. For illustration, the first columns of Table 1 present data on the average education, occupation, family structure, and contexts of reception of all nine immigrant groups. The marked differences between first generation Chinese, Filipinos, and Cubans, on the one hand, and Mexicans, Haitians, West Indians, and Laotian/Cambodians, on the other, provide the necessary background for the analysis of second generation results in Table 2 .

These differences in the human capital and modes of incorporation in the first generation go on to affect the second. Table 2 divides the large Cuban-American sample according to whether respondents attended public schools or the private bilingual schools set up by Cuban exiles arriving in the 1960s and 1970s. Private school Cuban-Americans are mostly the children of these early upper-and middle-class arrivals. Their public-school counterparts are mostly the offspring of refugees who arrived during the chaotic 1980 Mariel exodus or afterwards, whose levels of human capital were significantly lower and who experienced a much more negative context of reception in the United States. Of all major immigrant groups arriving in the United States after 1960, Cubans are the only one to have gone from a positive to a negative mode of incorporation, marked by the Mariel exodus and its aftermath ( Perez 2001; Portes and Stepick 1993).

Variations in school dropout rates or quitting study after attaining only a high school diploma are significant. In South Florida, youths who failed to pursue their studies beyond this level range from a low of 7.5 percent among middle-class Cubans to a high of 26 percent among Nicaraguans. Public school Cuban-Americans do much worse in this dimension than their private school compatriots. In Southern California, Chinese and other Asians have extraordinary levels of educational achievement; in contrast, close to 40 percent of second generation Mexicans and Laotian/Cambodians failed to advance beyond high school. The proportion of second generation Laotians and Cambodians with more than a high school education is not significantly higher than among their parents (see Table 1and 2). Mexican-Americans, on the other hand, advanced significantly beyond the first generation. Their below-average achievements relative to other nationalities reflect the very low family educational levels from which they started.2

Family incomes follow closely these differences. In South Florida, middle-class Cuban-Americans enjoy a median family income of over $70,000 and mean incomes over $104,000, while second generation West Indians have median incomes of just above $30,000 and Haitians even less. Approximately one-third of these mostly black groups have annual incomes of $20,000 or less. In California, similar differences separate second generation Chinese, Filipinos, and other Asian-Americans with average incomes above $57,000 from Mexicans and Laotian/Cambodians with mean incomes in the mid-30s. Median incomes of these Southeast Asian refugee families are the lowest in the sample.3

The dictum that 'the rich get richer and the poor get children' is well supported by figures in Table 2 . Only 3 percent of middle-class Cuban-Americans have had children by early adulthood. The figure is 0 percent for Chinese Americans. The rate then rises to about 10 percent of the Vietnamese; over 15 percent of Colombians, public school Cubans, and Filipinos; 25 percent among Haitians, West Indians, Laotians and Cambodians; and a remarkable 41 percent among Mexican-Americans. Hence, the second generation groups with the lowest education and incomes are those most burdened, at an early age, by the need to support children, a third generation that will grow up in conditions of comparable disadvantage.

Still more compelling evidence comes from differences in incidents of arrest and incarceration. Young males are far more likely than young females to be arrested and to find themselves behind bars. Yet, among Chinese males in the CILS sample no one did so and among middle-class Cubans just 3 percent did. The rate then climbs to 1-in-10 among Laotian/Cambodians; 19 percent among Salvadorans and other Latins in California; and a full 20 percent among Mexicans, Jamaicans, and other West Indians. To put these figures into perspective, they can be compared with the nationwide rate of incarcerated African-American males, ages 18 to 40 - 26.6 percent ( Western 2002; Western and Beckett 1998). With another 16 years to go on average, it is quite likely that second generation Mexicans, Salvadorans, and West Indians will match or surpass the African-American figure.

This is the most tangible evidence of downward assimilation available to date. It clusters, overwhelmingly, among children of non-white and poorly educated immigrants, reflecting the lasting effects of low parental human capital, unstable families, and a negative mode of incorporation. Informative as these results are, they still leave open the question of the relative strength of determinants of upward and downward adaptation in the second generation and the processes through which these outcomes develop. We do not know, for example, whether 'ethnicity' trumps 'class' in this process, or the extent to which family characteristics persist over time as determinants of adulthood outcomes. An alternative possibility is that such characteristics are translated into early achievement and aspirations patterns in school that, in turn, lead to subsequent 'hard' outcomes when children reach adulthood. To examine these and related questions, we must examine determinants of downward assimilation in a multivariate framework. The following section is dedicated to this purpose.

The other important question prompted by these results are the conditions that may lead second generation youths growing up in a context of significant disadvantage to escape lower-class stagnation or downward assimilation and move up educationally and occupationally. The final sections of the paper explore this central question.

b. Multivariate Models

Studying second generation adaptation as a process requires longitudinal data. In this respect, the CILS study provides the best available source for two reasons. First, it allows researchers to establish a clear temporal order between potential determinants, measured at average ages 14 and 17, and early adult outcomes, measured seven years later. Second, it provides data on a series of 'hard' objective outcomes in early adulthood that facilitate the construction of a single summary index.

The Downward Assimilation Index (DAI) is a count variable consisting of the unit-weighted sum of a series of discrete negative outcomes experienced by CILS respondents. These include: dropping out of high school, being unemployed (and not attending school), living in poverty, having had a child in adolescence, having been arrested, and having been incarcerated for a crime. DAI's range is 0-to-6, with higher scores indicating more frequent incidents of downward assimilation. Unlike attitudinal indices, DAI is not intended to measure a single underlying dimension, but rather to summarise a series of separate negative outcomes in the lives of our respondents.

The analysis of sample mortality in the final CILS survey indicates that low-SES, low-achievement students, and those raised by single parents are underrepresented. Hence, DAI's frequency distribution is likely to underestimate the number of cases experiencing downward assimilation. This made it necessary to correct the coefficients in the following analysis for missing data. As a count variable, DAI is not amenable to ordinary least squares analysis which would yield inconsistent or inefficient estimates; count variables are commonly modeled as Poisson processes ( Long 1997); however, Poisson regression models rarely fit the data because of the assumption of equidispersion in the conditional distribution μi = σ = exp( χiβ). Negative binomial regression (NBR) obviates this constraint by replacing the conditional mean by a random variable, μ, where μi = ( xiβ+Σi) and Σi is random error uncorrelated with xi ( Long 1997: 233).

As predictors of DAI, the model includes parental SES, family composition, and national origins, plus controls for age and sex. Subsequently, we nested these estimates in models that add the effects of the type of school attended in early adolescence, indexed by its ethnic and class composition. Finally, we add early adaptation outcomes - namely junior high school grades and educational expectations, measured in the first CILS survey, in order to examine the extent to which these variables mediate the early effects of family status, family composition and modes of incorporation. These models allow us to see how the adaptation process unfolds over time and the extent to which it is cumulative as the effects of exogenous variables are mediated by subsequent life events or, on the contrary, those effects are impervious to the influence of later factors.4

NBR coefficients can be transformed into percentages indicating the net increase/decrease in the relative probabilities of the dependent variable associated with a unit increase in each predictor. For clarity of presentation, we present these figures only for coefficients that are statistically significant. We use robust standard errors to correct for the clustered, multi-stage design of the CILS sample. The corrected SEs do not affect the actual coefficients, but they adjust for underestimation of errors that can lead to inflated z-scores. Robust SEs give us a much more demanding criteria for statistical significance than ordinary ones so that results that meet these criteria can be tagged as reliable.

Tables 3 and ​and4 4 present both unadjusted models and those adjusted for sample selectivity. The Heckman adjustment constructs a selectivity estimator, λ, and enters it additively into the substantive equation. As just noted, predictors of selectivity overlap with substantive ones, indicating the underrepresentation of disadvantaged respondents in the final survey. For this reason, we present both models and comment on the substantive significance of the selectivity coefficients.

Table 3

Predictor

I

II²

III

IV²

z-score

% change³

z-score

% change³

z-score

% change³

z-score

% change³

Family SES

−5.90***

−19.8

−2.73**

−9.9

−4.64***

−16.6

−1.75

n.s.

Stable Family ⁴

−6.89***

−30.2

−0.74

n.s. ⁵

−6.78***

−29.9

−0.74

n.s.

Age

2.04*

6.7

1.46

n.s.

2.67**

9.1

2.08*

6.9

Sex (Male)

2.86**

15.9

1.14

n.s.

2.95**

16.4

1.19

n.s.

National Origin:

School Characteristics:

School SES

--

--

--

--

−3.36**

−0.4

−3.22**

−0.4

λ ⁶

--

--

9.76***

39.8

--

--

9.87***

40.3

Table 4

Predictor

I

II²

z-score

% change³

z-score

% change³

Age

1.60

n.s. ⁴

1.60

n.s.

National Origin:

School Characteristics:

School Outcomes:

λ ⁵

--

--

0.08

n.s.

c. Determinants of Downward Assimilation

Table 3 presents early determinants of second generation adaptation in the two stages described previously. The first model includes parental SES, family structure, and nationality dummies for the groups found to be at greatest disadvantage in the preliminary results: children of Mexican, Haitian, West Indian, and Lao-Cambodian parents.5 The second model adds the additive effects of early school characteristics. Positive coefficients indicate greater probabilities of downward assimilation. Unadjusted results in the first column of the table show the strong inhibiting effects on the DAI of parental SES and stable families and the strong positive effect of Mexican origin. Additional positive and significant effects are associated with sex (males) and all other national origin indicators, except that for Lao-Cambodians.

When the model is corrected for selectivity, the family composition effect drops out, to be substituted for a strong lambda coefficient. All other effects are attenuated, but remain significant, except that of sex. These results reflect the influence of collinearity in the model because family composition is also a predictor of sample selectivity. Substantively, the significant λ coefficient re-states the importance of stable families and also points toward the greater probability of downward assimilation among respondents absent from the final sample.

The strong inhibiting effects of family SES and stable families were expected. So were the effects of a negative mode of incorporation as reflected in national origin. Somewhat unexpected, however, are the strength of the Mexican coefficient and the insignificance of that linked to Lao-Cambodian origins. Substantively, this means that, after controlling for all family characteristics, Mexican-American children continue to experience a significant adaptation disadvantage. On the contrary, the favorable mode of incorporation received by Laotian and Cambodian refugees is reflected in the fact that, once low parental human capital (captured by the family SES index) is taken into account, no handicap linked to national origin remains. Like Mexicans, black Haitian and Jamaican/West Indian parents also experienced a negative mode of incorporation (see Table 1 ) and this is reflected in resilient nationality effects that do not disappear after family controls are introduced.

The addition of school characteristics does not modify these conclusions, except to demonstrate the expected effect of average school SES: students attending higher-status schools in early adolescence are significantly less likely to experience downward assimilation later on in life. This effect does not remove, however, those of family characteristics or contexts of incorporation. The greater proclivity of second generation males to find themselves in a disadvantaged situation in early adulthood was anticipated. It is a consequence of the stronger tendency of young males to leave school prematurely and to be incarcerated. However, this gender effect is not resilient and disappears when models are adjusted for sample selectivity or when new variables are introduced, as seen next.

Equations adding early school outcomes are presented in Table 4 . They include junior high GPAs and educational expectations at that time. These variables were measured in the original CILS survey so they are causally prior to indicators of downward assimilation, measured in the third. Once these variables are added to the equation, the correction for sample selectivity drops out, reflecting the fact that presence/absence in the last follow-up is significantly affected by early academic achievement. The substantive effect of this variable (GPA) is very strong, as shown by the corresponding z-score: every one-point increase in early grades reduces the probability of downward assimilation by a net 30 percent. The influence of educational ambition, although weaker, runs in the same direction with college and post-college aspirations reducing DAI scores by 9 percent.

A theoretically important finding is that, with these controls in place, the long-term influence of exogenous factors, though attenuated, remains significant. Stable families still reduce the likelihood of downward assimilation by a net 25 percent and each standard deviation in the family SES index leads to an additional 10 percent reduction. Still more important, the previously observed nationality effects persist. Substantively, these results say that early academic achievement and ambition significantly affect subsequent adaptation outcomes, but do not 'filter' the influence of core structural determinants.

Average school SES continues to have its expected significant effect, with each additional SES point reducing DAI scores by 0.4 percent. Less expected is the effect of school ethnic composition. This coefficient is now highly significant, but its direction is opposite from expected: junior high schools with 60 or more percent minority students (coded higher) reduce downward assimilation, controlling for other variables. Part of the explanation for this result is the inclusion in the CILS sample of 100 percent Hispanic bilingual private schools in Miami whose students tend to do quite well in all indicators of achievement. With other factors controlled, this particularity of the sample comes to the fore. It should be noticed, however, that this minority school effect only emerges when grades and educational aspirations are controlled. Hence, it is only among statistically equivalent students in academic achievement and ambition that mostly minority school exercise a positive influence.

After controlling for all early school variables, Mexican-American youths continue to have a 26 percent chance of greater downward assimilation and the two predominantly black minorities in the sample - Haitians and Jamaican/West Indians - about a 40 percent greater chance relative to the rest of the sample. These results are a poignant indicator that not only are there are major differences among immigrant nationalities in adaptation outcomes, but that these differences endure into adulthood, even after taking educational achievement and aspirations into account. Children from middle-class families that stayed together and experienced a favorable or at least neutral context of reception have little probability of downward assimilation; those at the other end of the spectrum have a much higher probability of doing so.

In synthesis, this analysis provides conclusive answers to the two questions posed to segmented assimilation theory in the introductory section. First, there is strong evidence of downward assimilation in the second generation; second, the process is not random but patterned by the exogenous factors identified by the theory. In this sense, the model offers a more nuanced account of the process of adaptation than blanket predictions of second generation success. The support for segmented assimilation theory provided by these results does not extend, however, to evidence of the role of the intervening factors associated with the pace of acculturation, as portrayed in Figure 2 . That role must be inferred indirectly from the causal power of family variables, especially stable families. There are, however, additional and more direct indicators of the bearing of selective acculturation on the adaptation process. This comes from the last stage of the CILS project, discussed in the next section.

Overcoming Disadvantage

Sociology deals, for the most part, with rates and averages, not with exceptions. There are instances, however, when outliers can teach us something valuable about additional factors obscured by main causal forces. While the power of the exogenous variables identified by segmented assimilation is almost frightening in its implications, it is not necessarily the case that every child advantaged by family background and a favorable context manages to pull forward; nor that those disadvantaged by poverty and a negative mode of incorporation succumb to stagnation or downward mobility. If some instances of success-out-of-disadvantage in the second generation can be identified, they could teach us something important about factors other than random luck that would be significant in overcoming the effects of poverty and a negative mode of incorporation.

Two features of the CILS project come to our assistance in seeking to address this issue. First, its large sample size and second, its longitudinal character. Just as these two features proved important in testing the overall theory, they can also help us identify exceptional cases. To do this, we first located the sub-sample of CILS respondents that grew up in conditions of severe disadvantage. These are children who, at average age 14, were living in poor and frequently disrupted families and whose parents experienced a negative context of reception.

We then pose the question of whether any members of this sub-sample managed to overcome these handicaps in order to graduate from a 4-year college and start a professional career or attend graduate school in early adulthood. The answer to this question comes from the third CILS survey. From an initial sample of over 5,200 respondents, we identified just fifty cases that met these criteria. The next logical step was obviously to trace this small group of exceptional young men and women and re-interview them, as well as members of their immediate families.

This was done during the summer and fall of 2006 during the final stage of the study, dubbed CILS-IV. In total, sixty-one interviews were completed with respondents, their parents, and their spouses, if married. We were aided in this effort by the availability of tracking information from the CILS files which made possible effective Internet searches and by the willingness of our respondents to be re-interviewed. In general, it is easier to talk about success than failure and this feature played into our hands by facilitating lengthy and detailed interviews. These interviews were not conducted by hired staff, but by the authors themselves in an effort to obtain maximum information from this exceptional sample.

This last stage of the CILS project is qualitative and its conclusions emerge from reflection on common trends identifiable in the interviews. We do not present all the trends identified in this final stage of the study, but only those necessary to 'round the picture' by bearing on the general theoretical model in Figure 2 . For this purpose, we include selected personal stories from CILS-IV interviews that are useful for illustrating the principal patterns.

a. Parenting and Selective Acculturation

The child-rearing and educational psychology literatures have converged in preaching to parents a tolerant, patient, non-authoritarian attitude toward their offspring; and in promoting openness to new experiences and intensive socializing among the young. In parallel fashion, schools and other mainstream institutions pressure immigrants and their children to acculturate as fast as possible, viewing their full Americanization as a step forward toward economic mobility and social acceptance ( Unz 1999; Alba and Nee 2003).

Not really. A leitmotif in the CILS-IV interviews was the presence of strong and stern parental figures who controlled, if not suppressed, extensive external contacts and who sought to preserve the cultural and linguistic traditions in which they themselves were raised. Talking back to such parents is not an option and physical punishment is a distinct possibility when parental authority is challenged. These family environments have the effect of isolating children from much of what is going on outside: they are expected to go to school and return home with few distractions in between. While such rearing practices may be frowned upon by educational psychologists, they have the effect of protecting children from the perils of street life in their immediate surroundings.

Put differently, while freedom to explore and tolerant parental attitudes may work well in protected suburban environments, they do not have the same effect in poor urban neighborhoods where what there is to 'explore' is frequently linked to the presence of gangs and the drug trade. In addition, and contrary to conventional wisdom, full Americanization has the effect of disconnecting youths from their parents and depriving them of a cultural reference point on which to ground their sense of self and their personal dignity. As we shall see, this reference point is also an important component of these success stories.

Maintenance of parental authority and strong family discipline have the effect of inducing selective acculturation, as opposed to the full-barreled variety advocated by public schools and other mainstream institutions. Selective acculturation combines learning of English and American culture with preservation of key elements of the parental heritage, including language. Previous studies based on CILS and other data have shown that fluent bilingualism is significantly associated with positive outcomes in late adolescence, including higher school grades, higher educational aspirations, higher self-esteem, and lesser intergenerational conflict ( Peal and Lambert 1962; Hakuta 1986; Rumbaut 1994; Portes and Hao 2002). The CILS-IV interviews confirm this result, indicating that instances of success-out-of-disadvantage are almost invariably undergirded by strong parental controls, leading to selective acculturation. These results are congruent with the theoretical expectations of the model.

b. Outside Help

First Narrative: Raquel Torres, Mexican, aged 29, interviewed in San Diego, July 2006

Raquel Torres is the oldest daughter of a Mexican couple who emigrated illegally to San Diego after living for years in Tijuana. The mother has a ninth grade education and did not work while her three children were growing up; the father has a sixth grade education. While living in Tijuana, he commuted to San Diego to work as a waiter. At some point, his commuter permit was taken away and the family simply decided to sneak across the border. They settled in National City, a poor and mostly Mexican neighborhood where Raquel grew up monolingual in Spanish. As the result of her limited English fluency, she had problems at El Toyon Elementary, but she was enrolled in a bilingual training program where children were pulled out of classes for intensive English training. 'My teachers were wonderful,' she says.

It was while attending elementary school that she noticed how poor her family really was. She wanted jeans, tennis shoes, popular toys that she saw other children having, but her parents said no. ' No tenemos dinero,' (we don't have any money), they responded. On the other hand, discipline at home was stern: 'My parents, they brought us up very strict, very traditional, there was no argument; you just got the look and knew better than to insist.' In middle school, she made contact with AVID (Achievement via Individual Determination). While she was still struggling with English, AVID provided her with a college student as a tutor and took her in field trips to San Diego State University. 'It was a fabulous field trip; we were paired up with other students and sat in class. Mine was on biology. Still, I hadn't thought of going to college.'

The decisive moment came in her first year at Sweetwater Senior High in National City after she enrolled in Mr. Carranza's French class. Carranza, a Mexican-American himself and a Vietnam veteran, took a keen interest on his students. 'I mean, it wasn't so much the French that he taught, but he would also bring Chicano poetry and, within the first month, I remember he asked me, 'Where are you going to college?'' At Open House that year, Carranza took her mother apart, ' Usted sabe que su hija es muy inteligente?' (Do you know that your daughter is very intelligent?) ' De veras, mi hija?' (Really, my daughter?) answered the mother. 'Yes,' he said, 'she can go to college.' 'All of a sudden, everything made sense to me; I was going to college.'

Raquel graduated with a 3.5 GPA from Sweetwater and applied and was admitted at the University of California - San Diego. At the time, her family had moved to Las Vegas in search of work, but Raquel wanted to be on her own. She had clearly outgrown parents who, at this time, had started to be an obstacle. 'When I was studying late at night in senior high, my mother would come and turn off the light. She would say, 'Go to sleep, you'll go blind reading so much.'' Raquel entered UCSD in the last year of the Affirmative Action Program in California. As a result, she got some lip from several fellow students who criticised her for getting an unfair advantage. But she strongly defends the program: 'Without Affirmative Action, I probably would not have made it into UCSD. Besides, the Program made me work harder. Other students took their education for granted and didn't study as much, instead going to parties and fooling around.'

Raquel graduated from UCSD with a 3.02 GPA and immediately enrolled in a Masters in Education at San Diego State. After graduating, she took a job as a counselor in the Barrio Logan College Institute, another private organization helping minority students like herself attend college. She is currently planning to enroll in a doctoral program in education. Her advice for immigrant students: 'Stop making excuses; there's always going to be family drama, there's always gonna be many issues. But it's what you want to do that matters.'

Despite these 'where there's a will, there's a way,' parting words, it is clear that Raquel Torres moved ahead by receiving assistance in multiple ways. First, the stern traditional family upbringing that we saw previously kept her out of trouble, although it set her back in English. Her own selective acculturation had to be nudged along by those 'wonderful' teachers at El Toyon Elementary. Then she encountered the AVID program which provided her with personalised educational assistance and the first inklings of what college life would be like.

Finally, she met Carranza and her future took a decisive turn. The French teacher did not ask whether she was going to college, but what college she would attend. The fact that he was a co-ethnic and brought 'Chicano poetry' to class surely helped. He went beyond motivating her to recruiting the mother in order to support Raquel's new aspirations. Stern immigrant parents may instill discipline and promote selective acculturation in their children, but they are often helpless in the face of school bureaucracies. The last bid of important outside help that Raquel received was enrolling in the now phased-out Affirmative Action Program. The program allowed her to attend a first-rate institution, rather than a regional college. Nevertheless, after Carranza's intervention, it was clear that Raquel would attend college one way or another.

A constant in our sixty-one interviews, in addition to authoritative and alert parents, is the appearance of a really significant other. That person can be a teacher, a counselor, a friend of the family, or even an older sibling. The important thing is that they take a keen interest in the child, motivate him or her to graduate from high school and attend college, and possess the necessary knowledge and experience to guide the student in this direction. Neither family discipline nor the presence of a significant other is by itself sufficient to produce high educational attainment but their combination is decisive.

The second element that Raquel Torres' story illustrates is the important role of organised programs sponsored by non-profits to assist disadvantaged students. Whether it is AVID; the PREUSS Program, also organised by the University of California; Latinas Unidas; the Barrio Logan College Institute; or other philanthropic groups, they can play a key supplementary role by conveying information that parents do not possess: how to fill a college application; how to prepare for Standardized Admissions Tests (SATs) and when to take them; how to present oneself in interviews; how college campuses look and how college life is like, etc.

This finding is important because the creation and support of such programs is within the power of external actors and can be strengthened by policy. While the character of family life or the emergence of a really significant other is largely in the private realm, the presence and effectiveness of special assistance programs for minority students is a public matter, amenable to policy intervention. The programs and organizations that proved effective were grounded, invariably, on knowledge of the culture and language that the children brought to school and on respect for them. They are commonly staffed by co-ethnics or, at least, bilingual staff. Thus, unlike the full assimilation approach emphasised by public school personnel, these programs convey the message that it is not necessary to reject one's own culture and history in order to do well in school. In this sense, AVID and similar programs both depend and promote selective acculturation as the best natural path toward educational achievement.

c. Cultural Capital

Second Narrative: Luis Donato Esquivel, Mexican-American, aged 28, interviewed with his parents in San Diego, July 2006

The modest home of Jose Donato Esquivel and his wife, Griselda, in a working-class neighborhood of San Diego, is vintage Mexican, featuring a living room replete with family portraits, velvet-covered furniture, and lots of lace. Born in Tijuana, Jose, now aged 51, met Griselda in that city, to which her family had moved from Monterrey. Jose managed to graduate from high school, but then had to drop out to go to work; Griselda has a grade school education and has worked cleaning houses all her life. The couple eventually moved to San Diego, first illegally, but then managed to get their green cards with help from Griselda's father who was already living there as a legal immigrant. It was in San Diego that Jose and Griselda had their three children. The middle one, Luis Donato, fell into the CILS sample.

In San Diego, Jose Sr. worked at a succession of manual jobs until he managed to get a more stable one as service supervisor in a Honda dealership; Griselda always cleaned houses. Despite both working outside the home, they held tightly to their children. Discipline at the Esquivel home was tight. Griselda asserts that she and her husband nunca les dimos libertad (we never gave our children freedom). Luis was not allowed to have friends his parents did not approve of. A curfew was not necessary because the children were expected to be at home most of the time. Even while attending college, Luis was persuaded to continue living at home.

Father and son share the second name 'Donato' in honor of his grandfather, an accountant and businessman in Mexico. He was a big man in his city, fathering many children by different women, but he managed to care and inspire respect and admiration in all of them. Luis' younger brother also bears his name. Luis attributes his exceptional ability in math, a subject in which he excelled in high school, to his grandfather's influence. As an accountant, Donato Sr. was well-known for his skill with numbers.

Despite being U.S.-born, Luis took a keen interest in the history of his family in Mexico and in Mexican culture in general. The proximity of San Diego to the border and the presence of kin in Tijuana allowed him to travel there several times. Later in life, when he could afford it, he travelled to Mexico City to learn more about the country and its customs. Meanwhile, his good grades and good disposition for schoolwork caught the attention of a high school counselor, Janina Fernandez, who eventually helped him with his college applications. With her assistance, he also gained admittance into a program for minority high school students that took him to the University of California-Berkeley for three summers in a row, all expenses paid.

Luis graduated with honors from Morse High School in 1997 and was admitted to Berkeley. It was at this point that his father intervened: 'Look, you're going to go to that big-name university and meet other people, maybe marry a woman from that area and so you will abandon us. What's the difference if you go to Berkeley? We have good universities here.' Reluctantly, Luis cancelled his admission to Berkeley and enrolled in San Diego State. There, he did exceptionally well majoring in math, one of only 50 students in a class of 20,000 who did so. In 2001, he graduated with a 3.75 GPA, getting to wear at Commencement the white robe of high honors. His parents attended the ceremony: ' Ahí si uno se siente con tal orgullo que hasta se le caen los calcetines ' (there I was so flush with pride that even my socks fell off).

Luis is currently a high school maths teacher pursuing a Master's degree in order to be able to teach at the college level. He has married a woman of Mexican descent, also a college graduate. They both maintain a strong interest in things Mexican, travelling there frequently. Jose Sr. says that, despite his son and daughter-in-law being U.S.-born, 'They are more Mexican than I; they celebrate all Mexican holidays.' At his high school, Luis teaches five classes per day to all kinds of students, including undocumented Mexicans. He despairs at the low achievement of these children, handicapped by their lack of English and poor families. 'Parents rarely attend meetings with teachers like my own parents did; how can we teach them to do better for their kids?' he asks.

Luis Esquivel's story embodies all the elements seen previously: the importance of stern parenting and of significant others; the role of external assistance programs; the barriers that well-meaning but poorly educated parents can throw in the path of their offspring. In Luis' case he had to trade the University of California - Berkeley for San Diego State. For Don Jose one university was as good as another and, crucially, he wanted his son at home. There is, however, one other factor that this story illustrates with singular clarity, namely the importance of symbolic assets, cultural capital, transformed from the country of origin.

The parents of our respondents repeated stories of who they or their ancestors 'really were' as a way to sustain their dignity, despite their humble present circumstances. Children exposed to those stories often introject them, using them as a spur to achievement. We heard references to uncles and grandparents who were 'doctors' or 'professors' in Mexico; to ancestors who were 'landowners in California and put down an Indian rebellion'; and to parents who were high government officials before having to leave escaping political persecution.

This cultural capital brought from abroad actually has two components. The first is the motivational force to restore family pride and status. Regardless of whether the achievements of the past are real or imaginary, they can still serve as a means to instill high aspirations among the young. The second is the 'know-how' that immigrants that did originate in their country's middle-classes possess. This know-how consists of information, values, and demeanor that migrants from more modest origins lack. Regardless of how difficult present circumstances are, former middle-class parents have a clear sense of who they are, knowledge of the possible means to overcome the situation, and the right attitude when opportunities present themselves. These two dimensions of cultural capital converge in cases where both family lore and the habitus of past middle-class life are decisive in helping second generation youths overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

In the case of Luis Esquivel the towering figure of his grandfather played a decisive role. While his father, the son of a single mother forced to go to work early in life, had dropped significantly in the social hierarchy, he kept very much alive the memory of the achievements and demeanor of his own father. That Donato Sr. had been 'good with numbers' and a prominent figure in Mexico spurred his grandson to imitate him and to take an interest in his ancestral country, thereby promoting his own selective acculturation.

While not part of the CILS sample, the story of Dan-el Padilla provides another suitable illustration of this pattern. Dan-el was the 2006 Latin Salutatorian at Princeton University in which he majored in Classics, graduating with the highest honors. He is a black Dominican migrant who grew up in the Bronx with his mother and siblings. The father returned to the Dominican Republic and never came back. Dan-el's family alternated between spells of homelessness, sleeping in shelters, and public housing. All the while, he attended the worst public schools in the Bronx. A junior high school teacher gave him a book on classics and that little gesture set his course. The boy persisted, graduated from high school with highest honors and gained admission to Princeton. After delivering his address in Latin in May 2006, he proceeded to announce that he himself was an undocumented immigrant.

What saved the day in Dan-el's case was the solid middle-class status of the family in the Dominican Republic. Though black, both parents were university-educated and the father had been a prominent functionary before losing his job in a government change. He refused to stay in the United States for fear of having to toil in menial jobs beneath his dignity. It was the mother who migrated and faced life in dire circumstances in America for the sake of her children. Despite terrible conditions in the Bronx, Dan-el always kept alive the memory of that middle-class life and schooling in his native country. When his teacher gave him that book on classics, he fully understood what it meant.

Cultural capital brought from the home country is a product of selective acculturation. Referring to the theoretical model in Figure 2 , it is clear that dissonant acculturation deprives youths of this resource, as they lose contact or even reject the language and culture of parents. Whatever resources are embodied in that culture effectively dissipate. Consonant acculturation is less problematic but, as both parents and children strive to Americanise, it is unlikely that family memories and ancestral cultures can be used either as an anchor or as a point of reference. Only selective acculturation provides a natural path to make full use of symbolic resources brought from abroad.

Conclusion

Soon, one-in-four of all young Americans will be an immigrant or a child of an immigrant. This surging population cannot but have a deep effect on the entire society and, especially, on the cities and regions where it concentrates. Following the lead of classic assimilation theory, some scholars have advanced a highly optimistic prognosis about the future of this population: children of immigrants will assimilate into English and American ways, advance educationally and occupationally, and take their rightful place into society's mainstream ( Alba and Nee 2003).

There are valid grounds for this prognosis since the majority of this population is managing to do well in school and avoid the pitfalls that can derail their progress. However, this optimistic outlook neglects two facts: first, a sizable minority is not managing to overcome these challenges; second, those who do not come disproportionately from certain immigrant groups and not others. Young men and women from these groups are also assimilating, but they are doing so to sectors of U.S. society that are not conducive to their upward mobility. The concept of downward assimilation was coined to capture this reality.

The contemporary research literature on poverty and juvenile delinquency commonly deals with outcomes of the process. However, by relying on pan-ethnic labels - 'Asians', 'Hispanics', 'Blacks', etc. - this literature cannot clarify the root causes and the sequence of events leading to these unenviable results. To do so, it is necessary to learn about the specific histories of each national minority, including the characteristics of the immigrant generation and the political and social context that it met at arrival. Aggregating a number of such groups into pan-ethnic categories obscures rather than clarifies the causal processes at play.

The data analyzed in this paper is more appropriate for clarifying how the process of segmented assimilation unfolds. It focuses exclusively on the second generation and identifies individual nationalities within it. Past results based on this data set gave rise to the theoretical models presented in Figures 1 and ​and2. 2 . This article presents a synthesis of more recent findings showing how the process plays itself over time and what effects school context, academic outcomes, and selective acculturation have on it.

These effects are of two types: first, those that mediate or reinforce the three exogenous determinants in Figure 1 ; second, countervailing factors in the process of acculturation, leading to upward mobility. The first set of effects indicates that school contexts, in particular the average status of the student body, has a reliable influence on adult outcomes, even when controlling for family characteristics. They also show that school outcomes - academic achievement and educational ambition - play a strong inhibiting role on downward assimilation reinforcing those of parental SES and intact families.

Finally the results point to the resilient effects of certain national origins, used as a proxy for a negative mode of incorporation. These effects are impervious to mediation by school characteristics or academic outcomes and impinge directly on the likelihood of downward assimilation. The fact that one of these disadvantaged groups, Mexican-Americans, is, by far, the largest among today's second generation is worthy of attention and should give pause to optimistic declarations about the future of this population.

The second set of effects draws on the intervening variables identified in Figure 2 to show how factors associated with selective acculturation may countermand the power of exogenous determinants and lead, in exceptional cases, to educational and occupational success from backgrounds of severe disadvantage. These factors are associated, first, with authoritative parenting and prevention of dissonant acculturation; second, with the presence of significant others and external assistance programs; third, with the preservation of cultural skills and family memories brought from the home country.

What practical lessons can be derived from this analysis? A first is the difference that an immigrant population bifurcated by human capital can make. If all contemporary immigration were composed of professionals and entrepreneurs, most of the negative outcomes linked to downward assimilation would go away. That scenario will not materialise, however, because of the persistent and growing need of the American economy for low-wage manual labor ( Massey et. al. 2002). This structural demand in large sectors of the economy such as agriculture, construction, and personal services virtually guarantees that poor immigrants will continue to come. To the extent that they bring their families along, the problems associated with low parental human capital and a negative mode of incorporation will continue.

A second lesson is how these initial disadvantages transform themselves into objective outcomes. While over 40 percent of Mexican-American youths in the sample were burdened by premature childbearing and 20 percent of Mexican-American, Central American, and West Indian young males had already been incarcerated for a crime, just 50 cases or less than 1 percent of the original sample managed to overcome the consequences of a heavily disadvantaged upbringing. In the long term, these are unacceptable outcomes since, if projected into the future, they would lead to an increasingly unequal society, the expansion of areas of poverty associated with particular ethnicities, and the perpetuation of an urban nightmare of crime, drugs, imprisonment, and death.

The third lesson coming from these results consists of factors that can make a difference in leveling the field for disadvantaged children of immigrants. Making successful outcomes less exceptional among this population should be a public policy priority. The tools to accomplish this goal are at hand in the creation and support of voluntary after-school programs, in the promotion by teachers and counselors of a selective acculturation pattern, and in the creation of incentive schedules for school personnel to take a real interest in the future and prospects of immigrant students. Firms and employers who profit greatly from immigrant labor should also accept part of the financial burden required to insure that the children have at least a fighting chance to attain the American dream. Making assimilation less 'segmented' emerges from this analysis as a public good to be sought, not only for the sake of immigrant children, but of the entire society.

Footnotes

¹ The 'other' category is comprised of children of Canadian, European, and Middle Eastern immigrants.

² The proportion of second generation Mexican-Americans with high school education or less is approximately half the corresponding figure among their parents in the CILS survey, 70 percent. This indicates both the very low level of human capital of Mexican immigrant parents and the considerable educational strides made by their children in the U.S.

³ The Laotian/Cambodian figures indicate that extensive governmental assistance for these refugee groups did not suffice to lift them out of poverty, as least on average. The very low levels of parental human capital trumped, in this case, a favorable mode of incorporation linked to their refugee status.

⁴Descriptive characteristics of the variables used in this analysis are omitted for reasons of space. They are found in http://cmd.princeton.edu/papers/wp0802Appendix.pdf.

⁵The reference category for these predictors is formed by the rest of the CILS sample comprising youths whose parents came from 74 different countries. The diversity of this reference category and its size provide a solid point of comparison for nationality coefficients in Tables 2 and ​and3 3 .

Contributor Information

Alejandro Portes, Princeton University.

Patricia Fernández-Kelly, Princeton University.

William Haller, Clemson University.

References

Hirschman C. The Educational Enrollment of Immigrant Youth: A Test of the Segmented Assimilation Hypothesis. Demography. 2001 Aug;38:317-336. [[PubMed] Google Scholar]

Perlmann J. The Mexican-American Second Generation in Census 2000: Education and Earnings. Paper presented at the Conference on the Next Generation: Immigrant Youth and Families in Comparative Perspective, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies; Harvard University. October.2004. [Google Scholar]

Portes A, Rumbaut RG. Immigrant America: A Portrait. Berkeley: University of California Press; 1990. (2[nd edition 1996: 3rd edition 2006) Google Scholar]

Waldinger R, Lim N, Cort D. Bad jobs, good jobs, no jobs? The Employment Experience of the ["New" Second Generation. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. 2007:33. Google Scholar]

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Adaptation of the Immigrant Second Generation in America: Theoretical Overview and Recent Evidence

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This paper summarises a research program on the new immigrant second generation initiated in the early 1990s and completed in 2006. The four field waves of the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (CILS) are described and the main theoretical models ...

# data[].attributes.headline
Assimilation stress within Asian Americans prompt

# data[].attributes.subject
Assimilation stress within Asian Americans prompt

# data[].attributes.body
Since the 16th century, the integration of Asian culture into American society has not been easy. Struck by the rules of conformity, Asian Americans quickly learned that being "different", having their own culture, communicating their language, and even eating their own foods in American society would only result in racist remarks and decrease their success in society. Children of Asian American immigrants soon resent their culture and heritage in order to be recognized in society. Eventually, realizing the incurable gap conflict it creates with their culture and even their own family, they lose identity within themselves and who they are. Should Asian Americans be expected to hide behind a mask and leave their culture in order to fit into American society?