ANTH 23 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Apple Pie, Transnationalism
2nd Feb Friday
ANTH 23
Immigration and Assimilation!
What do you think is most important way immigrants should assimilate? !
•A. Conform to some American cultural practices (4th of July, etiquette, apple pie, baseball…) !
•B. Embrace American values (freedom of speech, democracy, free markets…) !
•C. Learn and speak English !
•D. Learn about American history and civics !
•E. None, I don’t think immigrants should assimilate!
Portes and Zhou: segmented assimilation:
•3 options/segments: !
1. traditional melting pot assimilation: integration into the mainstream (not always possible) !
2. assimilation into the underclass !
3. combining “rapid economic advancement !
-There is not one sort of unified American identity, so people could ideated with some parts
and not with others!
-Sometimes its better to preserve some culture and not assimilate entirely!
-Immigrants often forced to assimilate into parts (disadvantaged) that don’t represent the
American culture.!
Variables determining the type of assimilation:
• political relations between sending and receiving nations !
•economic state of receiving nation !
•intensity of discrimination in the receiving nation !
•presence of a phenotypically similar marginalized racial or ethnic group!
-The economy does well, people like immigrants and when it's not people don’t want to
see immigrants. !
Factors impacting immigrant success
•Negative factors: color, location, absence of “mobility ladders” !
•Positive factors: government programs, aid from sympathetic elements of the host
population, help from co-ethnic community networks !
Case study : Field High School
• majority of those with Spanish surnames drop out!
• 40% of native-born white students drop out!
• 35% of those with limited English ability (probable recent immigrants) drop out • segmented
assimilation may explain this trend!
Ethnic identification among Mexican students in California
•Recent Mexican immigrants: maintain Mexican identity !
•Mexican-oriented students: speak Spanish at home but fluent in English, cultural ties with US
and Mexico, distinguish themselves from recent arrivals, highest achieving Hispanic students!
•Chicano/as: 2nd and 3rd generation, conflict with above groups and white society !
•Cholo/as: identifiable by dress and swagger, visibly indistinguishable from Chicano/as !
-Not the first generation immigrants drop put, they maintain cultural identity. The latter
categories are people who have an oppositional style of identity, their identity is in
opposition to American identity as they feel a pressure to choose between their culture
and economic/academic success. !
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