Assimilation Interview Paper

An Asian-American process of Assimilation In this interview, my respondent is a second-generation male immigrant, meaning that he has parents who immigrated to the United States while he was born and raised here (Feliciano Lec.1/4/16). I will be referring to my respondent as Geoff for the sake of his identity protection and I will be talking about how his parents came to the United States and I will be analyzing his assimilation process based on if there is any culture retention using lecture material and readings as a guide to explain this process. Geoff’s parents were both born around the 1950s and immigrated around the ages of 17 and 18. However, his mom immigrated from Macau, China while his dad came from Hong Kong, China. Despite of

They were both able to obtain a green card and ultimately become naturalized citizens.
When I asked Geoff what his parent’s culture was like, he stated that his mom took in the American culture really quickly, where she listened to American music and she started speaking English quickly also. His mom, however, still practiced Catholicism which was her religion back in China. Geoff stated that his dad had to become American because he worked for Cisco where his dad had to travel to many states in the United States and occasionally travel internationally, however, he still continued practicing Buddhism. I start realizing that his parents are showing signs of the Portes and Zhou segmented selective assimilation theory, where they state that in this assimilation process, there is rapid economic advancement without full acculturation in the host society (Feliciano Lec.1/13/16). Both his parents have gained the resource of speaking English and are attaining some American culture, clearly stating selective assimilation. The traveling his father has been doing in his job has also given him a resource because as his father travels, he is being exposed to many parts of the United States, allowing him to