Chapter 2 of Healey’s Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class (Assimilation and Pluralism).
Assimilation is a process in which formerly distinct and separate groups come to share a common culture and merge together socially. Pluralism, exists when groups maintain their individual identities. Pluralism and assimilation are not mutually exclusive. Groups may assimilate in some ways and maintain their differences in other ways.
Assimilation can occur in a number of ways. The “melting pot” analogy is an analogy where different groups come together and contribute in roughly equal amounts to create a common culture and a new, unique society. Anglo-conformity, or Americanization, describes assimilation in the Unites States as a coercive and one-sided process that was designed to maintain the predominance of the English language and the British-type institutional patters created during the early years of American society.
According to Gordon (Assimilation in American Life 1964), assimilation occurs over time (and generations) in stages. Cultural assimilation, or acculturation, occurs when minority-group members learn and adopt the Anglo-American culture, such as, learning the English language, changing eating habits, etc. Structural assimilation, or integration, occurs when minority-group members enter the social structure of the larger society. This tends to happen first at the secondary sector (larger group society, business and organizations) and then at the primary sector (family and friends). Once assimilation occurs at the larger level, additional stages of assimilation will inevitably follow. Finally, since people tend to marry within their primary relations, marital assimilation can occur once minority-group members have assimilated at the primary sector.
For European immigrants, assimilation typically occurred over three generations (Gordon). The first generation, the immigrants, typically settled within its ethnic neighborhood, but began to acculturate upon venturing out of ethnic neighborhoods for work. The second generation, the children of the immigrants, learned their ethnic culture from their family and then learn the Anglo-American culture by going to school. Their schooling allowed for their greater integration into American society allowing for social mobility. They tended to move out of the ethnic neighborhoods, spoke English fluently, and enjoyed a range of occupational choices and opportunities. By the third generation, the grandchildren of the immigrants were thoroughly Americanized. They tended to be born and raised outside the ethnic setting, were completely culturally and socially assimilated at birth, and only exposed to their ethnic heritage during family gatherings. For the most part, white ethnic groups that immigrated from 1820-1920 have thoroughly assimilated.
Human capital theory argues that status attainment, or the level of societal success achieved by an individual, is a direct result of educational levels, personal values and skills, and other individual characteristics and abilities. However, human capital theory is not a complete diagnostic for success. It too simply assumes that U.S. society is fair and equally open to all group members of its society, and furthermore it does not account for all factors that affect upward mobility.
Multiculturalism, stresses mutual respect for all groups and for the multiple heritages that have shaped the United States. There are several types of pluralism; cultural, structural and enclave/middleman. Cultural pluralism exists when groups have not acculturated and each maintains its own identity. Social pluralism describes the groups that share the Anglo-American culture however the groups occupy different locations in the social structure, not having full and equal access to the institutions of the larger society. Integration without acculturation can occur in enclave minority situations, often times in cases where the group relies on a a set of specific and interconnected businesses for economic survival.
Assimilation via contemporary immigrants may or may not take a similar path to that of European ethnic groups. Contemporary immigrant groups are much more diverse that those from Europe. Some sociologist argue that assimilation is fragmented or segmented and will have different outcomes. For example some will assimilate to the middle class, while others will become/remain impoverished, alienated and marginalized, while others may enjoy some success in ethnic enclaves. The debate about contemporary immigration assimilation is ongoing.
