Cultural assimilation is the process by which a person's or group's culture come to resemble those of another group. This can occur voluntarily or by force, like if you are relocated to a different country like with what happened to Richard Rodriguez in his life story “Aria”. His story is critique by other writers such as, Tomas Rivera in “From “Richard Rodriguez’s Hunger of Memory as Humanistic Antithesis”, Ramon Salvador in “From Chinano Narrative”, and Victor Villanueva Jr. in “From’ whose voice Is It Anyway?”. Many people can argue that assimilation is necessary if a person is moved into a new culture or society. The process of assimilation of immigrants into American society robs them of their history, lowers the person’s self-esteem, …show more content…
Assimilation makes a person forget who they were and where they came from in order to adapt to their new society. Victor Villanueva Jr. describes what it is like for minorities that come to America from other countries, “The minority became an American almost by default” (par 2). The minority must forget their past lives from where they came from in order to adapt to their new American lifestyle. The process of assimilation should allow a foreigner to come into the United States without forgetting all they know from their past life in their original Country. Tomas Rivera explains in his passage “From “Richard Rodriguez’s Hunger of Memory as Humanistic Antithesis” that “Without wisdom, he almost forgets the original passions of human life” (par 1). This does not manly affect the grandparents or parents of the situation, but the children that do not have a choice in the matter of where they live. Moving to a new country and not knowing anything about that country is a tariffing thing to do, especially for a child that can develop self-esteem …show more content…
A child in a new country is scared, emotional, and probably has little to no confidence. They are different from the rest of their new society, especially if they are transferred to a white school like Richard Rodriquez was when he was young, he explains in his passage “Aria”, “An accident of geography sent me to a school where all classmates were white” (par 3). Those white children probably looked at Richard Rodriquez like he was an alien from another planet, and Richard Rodriquez probably noticed that. Being an outsider affects a person’s mentality, it affects their self-image. Victor Villanueva Jr. explains in his passage “From “whose voice Is It Anyway?” that “The immigrant gave up much in the name of freedom- and for the sake of dignity” (par 4). In order to be fully assimilated into the Americans society, people will do anything to achieve that level of freedom, even if that means losing all self-image and dignity. They must lose that dignity that they once had, along with their culture, because of the assimilation
...izes that it will not be easy to hear his “intimate family voices” (284). Rodriguez explains the consequences of assimilation through social identity.
The autobiography Journey of Hope Memoirs of a Mexican Girl and the documentary short “Children in No Man’s Land” has brought into light three important topics that are results of immigration. The first is the “American dream” and the notion of yearning to migrate abroad to seek dreams formed by misconceptions of the limited knowledge one has of their destination. The second is assimilation and the process of assimilating oneself to their new homeland. The third is a unique situation presented in both these works, which is estrangement from their family members. This paper attempts to critically analyze the unique journey of immigration for Rosalina, Maria de Jesus, and Rene. It argues that glorified images and dreams of what America could be like falsely creates a sense of hope. It focuses on the dual task of reviewing the process of assimilation based on each immigrant situation, and an examination of familial estrangement as
Most people want to feel like they fit in, but for refugees and immigrants, that feeling was even more important. “Young refugees and immigrants... were caught between the world of their parents and the new world of their friends and schoolmates” (105) and had to choose whether they would vie for the approval of their peers or their family. One young boy on the Fugees soccer team refused to cut his hair because his peers thought it was cool, and ended up being kicked off the team (111). Other young refugees in Clarkston gave in to the allure of gangs, and ended up in a cycle of violence and crime, just for a sense of belonging and safety. “Gangs… promised both belonging and status”(105) and provided a way to become American, despite all the trouble and anguish they put their members in. As adolescents between worlds, young immigrants experience a heightened sense of liminality, when a person “becomes neither here nor there” (221), and struggle with finding out who they are and where they
In Aria,” from Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez, Richard Rodriguez shares his autobiography of when he first entered his classroom at catholic school. He writes of his transition through emotions of fear, insecurity, and self-doubt as he transitions from the privacy of his home to the public world. Richard develops an understanding that his that private language that is used in his home is different from the language that is publicly acceptable in school. His school teachers pushed his americanalization which led him to discover his identity, since he indeed was an American but grew up in a Spanish speaking home. Through this journey of journey of assimilation he discovers that learning this new language brought him a sense of comfortability and acceptance. Richard Rodriguez heavily relates to the Crevecoeurian immigrant because he was willing to learn a new language, leave his culture behind, and embrace his American identity.
When people migrate to America, they experience a cultural shock. Immigrants feel overwhelmed by the new language and culture. The struggle to adapt to the new environment forces them to try to fit into the American stereotype. In The Soul of Black Folk, Du Bois says that the way white Americans view African Americans creates a tension on African American social identity. This tension is also seen on immigrant’s social identity once they migrate to the United States. Immigrants struggle to reconcile two cultures with a multi-faceted perspective of self, which creates a double consciousness.
Notwithstanding Brubaker (2001) argues that there are two basic meanings of assimilation, namely: the general and abstract sense and the specific and organic sense and both differ in their affective overtones, moral and political connotation, and intellectually respectability. The general and abstract sense, deals with the process of increasing similarity or becoming similar or likeness but not identical. It focusses on the process and not the final state — designates a direction of change, not a particular degree of similarity. While specific and organic sense, focuses on the final state and assimilation is a matter of either /or, not of degree. Assimilation in this sense implies complete absorption into the system or community (Brubaker, 2001).
Immigration has a great impact on first generation immigrants. Studies show that acculturation and assimilation have wide-ranging effects on the groups involved, but mostly on the immigrants' lives. There are positive and negative attributes. Attributes that are due to the issues associated with integrating cultures, and broadly related to the greater issue of immigration. The issues and discrimination towards first generation immigrants cause them to have limitations throughout their lifetime, in the country that they have moved to. Furthermore, the Hispanic and Latino community have lived through this problem for so long. They are always the group to be affected by it because they lose a sense of self and are never really accepted by the dominant or other group involved. This is a big issue that requires more attention and efforts to come up with a solution.
In America, it is a common misconception that all foreigners are similar; it is believed that they all have similar dreams and each of them end up chasing after the same jobs. However, this is not the case. Not only do immigrants from different countries hold different dreams, but those with a shared background even have varying hopes and dreams for the future. This is evidenced in Bharati Mukherjee’s essay, “Two Ways to Belong in America.” She utilizes several rhetorical strategies in order to show that immigrants have the ability to be assimilated into the American culture, but that they should not be deported if they choose not to conform to said culture.
Immigrants leave their countries in search for a better life and improvement of their situation. There is no singular reason for immigration; motivations range from better economic prospects to political safety. As of late, the number of immigrants living in the United States is an estimated 11 million. Those who immigrate are expected to contribute to the United States culturally, politically, and economically. Yet, full assimilation becomes difficult to achieve when the immigrant is made into “the other” by the country of reception.
Acculturation and assimilation are treated as complex, multifaceted phenomena. The acceptance of new cultural traits or social associations and retention of traditional cultural traits and social associations are viewe...
Sometimes it is the result of losing their identity. In the article “The Phases of Culture Shock”, Pamela J. Brink and Judith Saunders describe four phases of culture shock. They are: Honeymoon Phase, Disenchantment Phase, Beginning Resolution Phase, and Effective Function Phase. These phases denote some of the stages that exemplify culture shock. The four phases are illustrated in the articles “New Immigrants: Portraits in Passage” by Thomas Bentz, “Immigrant America: A Portrait” by Alejandro Portes and Ruben G. Rumbaut, “When I Was Puerto Rican” by Esmeralda Santiago, “Today’s Immigrants, Their Stories” by Thomas Kessner and Betty Boyd Caroli, and lastly, “The New Americans: Immigrant Life in Southern California” by Ulli Steltzer, and are about the experiences of This essay will examine the four phases of culture shock and classify the experiences of these immigrants by the different phases of culture shock identified.
Assimilation is a process that allows one group to merge into the custom and cultures of another. There are many ideas and opinions regarding the practice of assimilation and the different steps that occur during this Process. The Poem “Heritage” by Countée Cullen's, demonstrates this progression by looking at an African American born into the USA in a primarily white culture. It reflects the struggle of conforming to ones current culture while understanding the history and ancestry of their past in Africa. The following examines the struggle of this African American, by analyzing the poem’s stanzas and imagery to convey the steps throughout the assimilation theory.
He mournfully tells his audience he has “moved away from the periphery and toward the center of American life, [he] has become white inside” (Liu 1). As a young chinese boy growing up in America, he was taught the way to assimilation was to abandon the language, culture, and traditions of his ancestors, and his essay is a remorseful reflection on the consequences of his sacrifice. Despite giving away so much, despite doing it all to ‘become white’, he will always be an outsider – race and skin color can never be the uniting factor of a community. Eric Liu goes on to talk about how “the assimilist is a traitor to his kind, to his class, to his own family” (Liu 2). Why does it need to be this way? The ‘a-word’ (assimilist) need not be a negative one, if only assimilation meant adapting to an ideology rather than one race’s culture. If that were the true meaning of assimilation, the idea that to assimilate is to betray would be eradicated. The current method of naturalization to American culture is unacceptable: The only thing that will unite Americans will be a common goal to promote good values and hard work within
To close, it is possible to say that to be part of American society and to gain a public identity, Rodriguez believes that it is necessary to assimilate the American culture. Rodriguez believes that it is correct to speak English in the USA because English is the language of public life. As a consequence of this, Rodriguez partially lost his family and his cultural ties. As a personal opinion, I can say that although Rodriguez believes that assimilation is necessary to be part of American society, family traditions, and backgrounds are just as important if not more than conforming to a culture. I strongly believe than people can keep their culture within another one. Richard Rodriguez could have kept part of his Hispanic heritage and still become Americanized.
At some point in our lives we experience a culture as an outsider by moving from one culture to another.In the world today there are so many different cultures and not one of them is found to be the same.Instead they all have something that makes them unique, whether its language or even the clothes they wear and their behavior as well.The differences they have is what separates them from one another and who ever joins that particular culture must get accustomed to their way of life.In the society today we have many people immigrating to the United States to start a new and better life but what they soon begin to realize is that it’s a whole new world out there and in order to survive they have to get accustomed to the new way of life which is much different from their lives before.