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Originally Posted by Razor
I would offer that perhaps this is part of the assimilation problem overall. Not to say that yesteryear's immigrants didn't form into enclaves of like race/culture/country of origin, but how many of today's immigrants go so far as to change their surname (i.e. LeBlanc to White, Ouelette to Willette) to appear more 'American'? How many immigrant families forbid the use of the mother tongue in their homes, and insist on using only English in hopes to learn their new country's language sooner? How many of today's immigrants absolute insist on their children attaining as much education as possible in an effort to place them into mainstream American society? In my opinion (supported by facts or not), today's immigrant overall appears to be less interested in assimilation, and more interested in being a more successful <insert country of origin moniker here> with a far better standard of living than they could have back home.
And yes, I'm sure you'll find hard numbers to answer my questions, AL, despite their rhetorical intentions.  |
I'm sure there are studies somewhere, but I suspect this might turn out to be one of those bits of conventional wisdom that isn't necessarily true.
I know my grandfather grew up speaking German as a first language, while my father did not, and I was probably the last one in my family to learn any German as a second language. Germans tended to assimilate faster than other immigrants, although Germans also managed to change the dominant Anglo-Saxon culture more than any other immigrant group, so in assimilating they also remade the society. Outside of Louisiana and some places on the Quebec border, French-Americans thoroughly assimilated and there is almost nothing in America that could be defined as an example of Franco-American impact. Eastern and Southern European immigrants, especially Catholics and Orthodox, were somewhat less assimilated.
For non-European immigrants, the pattern seems different. While a Lithuanian or a Greek might face some discrimination and lost opportunities because of his accent, language skills or level of comfort in American culture, others such as Japanese and Chinese and Jews (European and non) faced serious discrimination. So they tended for the most part to become more American than most Americans, to prove their American-ness. Most Africans faced a different challenge - they did not come here as immigrants and had much of their "<insert country of origin moniker here>" identity stripped away - but also tended to follow the "more American than Americans" pattern, and also influenced Anglo-Saxon culture, especially Southern culture, like the Germans.
At the same time, while outwardly assimilating, groups tended to form parallel cultures that did maintain that "<insert country of origin moniker here>" identity. You had neighborhood banks that catered to particular ethnic groups and pandered to fears that the mainstream banks were stealing their money. You had church and synagogue-based educational and social networks, private clubs, secret societies and ethnically-based organized crime syndicates (Russian Jews of the Brooklyn
mafiya are following in the footsteps of Mayer Lansky and Buggsy Siegel).
You also had a system where immigrants of one ethnicity would fill the gap created as a prior one assimilated. Organized crime is a model of this. English gangs and syndicates were replaced by Irish and Jewish mobsters, who gave way to the Italian mafia, who are losing their turf to Jamaican, Albanian and Russian mobs. Often, the prior group had initially recruited members of the later group.
You also see an immigration pattern where similar ethnicities associate with each other. Albanian immigrants tended to go into Italian neighborhoods, Armenians into Greek neighborhoods, Lithuanians into Polish neighborhoods, Salvadorans into Mexican neighborhoods, and so on. Muslim immigrants don't tend to follow this pattern - you don't find too many Arabs in Iranian or Turkish neighborhoods, for example - except in certain cases (Arabs from different parts of the Middle East cluster together, as do Muslims from the sub-continent). Also, the biggest Arab communities in the US, such as in Michigan, have large Christian populations. An Iraqi American isn't going to feel at home in a Lebanese Maronite Catholic neighborhood.
The biggest things affecting assimilation today are the two I mentioned earlier: welfare statism and political correctness making it both easier and less desirable to assimilate into American society. That said, I don't see this pattern as strong among refugees as among other immigrants. Many Mexican and Chinese immigrants do seem to fit your "more successful <insert country of origin moniker here>" model. Others do not. Lots of Asian immigrants do, for example, change their names, speak English better than most and send their kids to the best colleges. West Indian blacks also do extremely well (though they generally have less of a language barrier to deal with), as do many recent immigrants from Africa, especially English-speaking Africa. The stereotype of the immigrant 7-Eleven owner or cab driver is a manifestation of many immigrants wanting to realize the American dream of being your own boss.
I should also note that Marianna had some difficulty with English, but many of her other friends did not, so in her case her own insecurities played a role. She retreated back to that cocoon because she was afraid of the big bad city. At the same time, she did manage to get into and graduate from a pretty good law school (Fordham). And Brooklyn's Russian community, being something like 95% Jewish, feels no strong attachment to Russia (Marianna was actually from the Azerbaijan SSR) and only a slight attachment to Israel. They are an enclave within America, but they view themselves as part of America.
Guy: no worries! My brother and I routinely get into the whole "street smarts vs. book smarts" thing. It's like a family reunion here every day.
). As folks became assimilated and established communities, they reached the critical mass for the "infrastructure that keeps refugees from assimilating." Today I see new immigrants from my country who don't have to assimilate because they can live and work in the enclaves. I guess I don't really blame them, it's tougher to assimilate as an adult, I was a kid who went right into first grade here.
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