When people say that immigrants should assimilate to American culture, what does that mean exactly; when America is already composed of many different cultures, races, and religions? Assimilation to what exactly?
Jack Weston: “As an immigrant, I absolutely endorse the assimilation of immigrants. Our society is enriched a bit at a time when an immigrant immerses herself and becomes part of this wonderful and unique culture.American culture can be defined as “success can be achieved by anyone of any background with hard work because of our respect for the rule of law, individuality, and fair play.” But success cannot be attained if one does not want to be part of the culture as isolation limits success.I have lived the life of an immigrant and believe me, it was very tough in the first few years. I was constantly bullied and discriminated against because of my race and inability to speak English. But I overcame all of that and worked hard at getting an engineering degree and later a law degree. Now, I consider myself as an American as I have fully immersed myself in this wonderful country and made friends with people of all races and backgrounds. I have started three successful businesses because our society has a solid infrastructure for anyone willing to work hard and abide by the rule of law. I have hired and employed women, blacks, Hispanics, Muslim, gay, Asians, Indians, foreigners as well as US born. I am able to do all of this because I fully assimilated into this unique American culture. Put another way, if an immigrant does not want to assimilate, then why bother immigrating to any country!”
Justin B: “Assimilate to American culture means learn English – accents are acceptable, but at least make an effort, obey the rule of American law, get a job, pay your taxes, ask for the minimum amount of government help possible. Be grateful for what we have here instead of complaining about what we don’t. Embrace American traditions and openly share yours with Americans. Don’t try to change America into the place you came from… or into Europe, for that matter. If you like it there, go there. Assimilation does not mean you have to give everything up and eat cheeseburgers and get baptized and buy a gun. But it also doesn’t mean to impose sharia law within your reclusive community or to spray paint gang symbols on every wall in your neighborhood or to insist on every government form being available in 8 languages. And this is not about skin color. It is about effort. Growing up in Southern California I knew plenty of Hispanic people who were as American as I am but brown as can be and some with super heavy accents…. But we’re trying. And I knew plenty who refused to even make an attempt.”
Aleksey Matiychenko: “Immigrants to the US should be expected to share American values, respect and abide by US law, and learn to speak English. What makes the US special is that they can do all of that while keeping their original identity and culture.”
Keith Snyder: “It is hard to define American Culture since it is made up of a vast variety of different cultures. But, there are some things that should be done. Immigrants should learn the history of the US, and adopt English as their primary language. If the reason for immigrating to the United States is to have greater opportunity, greater freedom and security, then learn how those things are provided, and the theory behind the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, learn the Amendments etc. There is a great debate going on in the United States now, including the idea that we should update the Constitution, change or add Amendments, be less capitalistic, and more socialistic etc. As immigrants join the population, they should want to make informed decisions about these issues. One of the great things about the United States is the variety of cultures including food, music, entertainment, backgrounds in general. There is true value in diversity. However, it can make it difficult to get everyone pointed in the same direction, so that we have a continuously improving society. It is time for all of us, native born, and immigrants to clearly define what makes America great, and what we want to leave to future generations. It will require work, because our traditional sources of information may not be telling the whole story, on either side of the argument. But I think there is little doubt that countries that pull in the same direction get farther faster. So a common basis of culture is important.”
Craig Weiler: “Yes. Do the best you can and if you have cultural enclaves, don’t get stuck in them. Americans, particularly on the coasts where most immigrants end up, generally don’t care about your racial appearance and if you can speak English well they will go ahead and accept you. You want that. The better your English, the more accepted you will be. Holding on to your own culture will not only hold you back, your American children will roll their eyes at you. And do you really want to take your 10 year old daughter to the DMV to translate for you because you’ve been here 20 years and never learned the language? (This absolutely happens.) Non-assimilated immigrants are tiresome for us. They go on and on about a culture they abandoned and are never going back to and we can’t help but notice the subtle “look how great our culture is” dig that they have a “real” culture and we don’t. We do have a real culture, it’s just not something you can easily define. If you’re going to stay here, learn English. It’s that simple. There is a kind of loophole here and that is the relationship between Mexico and the United States. In western states, some of which were part of Mexico at one time, it gets a bit more complicated. Mexican and American cultures have basically been thrown in a blender together. The line between immigrants and Americans is blurred culturally. It’s still a damned good idea to learn English in the U.S., but assimilation means something much different than it would for say, a Vietnamese. There is a huge cultural grey area.”
E. Thrush: “Most of the people who say that mean that they are afraid of people who are different and want immigrants to sound and act just like Anglo-Americans. That doesn’t happen- never has, never will. We can thank immigrants from Italy for pasta and pizza, immigrants from China for the existence of Chinese restaurants all across the US, and immigrants from Mexico for the many taco stands serving up delicious food, as well as guacamole, nachos, and burritos. In many cities, there are areas called Chinatown, Japantown, Little Italy, etc. Many of the people living in these areas are 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generation immigrants. They have contributed to a vibrant culture that never stagnates.”
Erik Isaksen: “The concept is not limited to America, it applies to literally every nation, or culture in the history of the world. Each culture is different, thus, to “assimilate” into American culture means the same as it does in every other nation or culture in the world … that, if you want to move to another nation, and/or live amongst another culture, it behooves you to learn and take on the key aspects of that culture, that makes that culture unique, such as languages, local mores, and laws, in order to fit in, and avoid negative outcomes, like ending up in jail, because you didn’t understand something essential about that culture. This does not mean you lose that which makes you, you … .it simply means you’re doing your best to fit in, to reduce issues and misunderstandings.”
Joseph Boyle: “Expected, definitely yes, in the sense that it inevitably quickly happens and the charges that they are not assimilating are completely false propaganda to undermine our country. The issue is more whether any heritage culture at all can be preserved after 3 generations. We only need to worry about too much assimilation, not too little.”
Penelope Perez: “I like to think about moving to another country and how long it would take me to really learn the language and get with the rhythm of a whole new society. It’s a process. I would hope people would want to support me and my efforts over time. I would probably prepare a little bit too before I decided to move to a whole other country. Moving to a new place is very brave.”
