In this essay, I shall critically examine if it is the responsibility of ethnic minorities to assimilate into the Hong Kong society and give up their own cultural to be real Hong Kong people. First, I would define what is “assimilation” and different forms of integration. How different forms of integrations are being used internationally. Secondly, I would share my views in favor of assimilation and against assimilation. Thirdly, I would state my position as a social worker that ethnic minorities should not assimilate into local cultural because as a human everyone has the right of freedom to choose their religion, taste and type of food, clothing style etc. Lastly, how I would work and contribute to the situation as a social worker.
The term
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What is culture? According to E.B. Taylor (1860), culture is the total amount of ideas, values, beliefs, material cultural equipments and non-material aspects, which is made by man or a group in a society. Cultural assimilation “is the process by which a person or a group’s culture comes to resemble those of another group. Full assimilation occurs when new members of a society become indistinguishable from members of the other group.” (Wikipedia, 2013) Language assimilation is also referred to as language shift or replacement, whereby a community shifts to speak another language, most probably perceived to be higher status. Moreover, religion assimilation “refers to the passive or active inclusion of persons of another religion as members or elements within a particular faith or belief system. It is similar in intent to pluralism.... Assimilation includes the normal religious indoctrination of children by their parents, as well as the religious conversion of individuals from one faith to another. It is important, if not the most important form of cultural assimilation, around with other traditions, social customs and even terms of language are centred. (Wikipedia,
How does one define what culture is? Culture is defined as the system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that the members of society use to cope with, their world and with one another - transmitted from generation through learning. This is particularly meaning a pattern of behavior shared by a society or group of people; with many things making up a society’s ‘way of life’ such as language, foods etc. Culture is something that molds people into who they are today. It influences how people handle a variety of situations, process information and how they interact with others. However, there are events when one’s own culture does not play a significant role in the decisions that they make or how they see the world. Despite
Throughout the world there are many societies and cultures with different customs and beliefs. Despite the vast differences, almost all of these societies demand conformity from those who take part in them. This can clearly be displayed by examining the novels Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and Fathers and Children by Ivan Turgenev. Though these two novels demonstrate extreme differences between both the culture and locations they are set in, they still exemplify a form of assimilation.
Cultural assimilation is one’s intention or nation in dominating another group or society. The pace can either be quick or gradual, depending on the community being referred to and from what history can tell, it often leads to dispute from both members of the group to a degree that it often causes war. Assimilation of the Native Americans and the Europeans during the seventeenth century are described as a cruel and a horrific period. As John M. Murrin states “the discovery of America was an evil. Never can the advantages it brought about (no matter how one considers or depicts them) compensate for the harm it has caused.” Although this may be true, the cantankerous and domineering Europeans depended on the economic, political and societal gains from the Natives. However, Europeans attempt to change the Natives beliefs on social issues such as religion and
The forced assimilation in Native American culture caused utter annihilation to many tribes and caused many bonds to be broken. An example of broken bonds, is when the Cherokee fought back, there were a few Cherokee people who tried to convince John Ross to leave and move west ("John Ross and the Cherokee Indians"). Eventually, John Ridge was brutally murdered; due to him selling land and making people leave and adapting to white culture ("John Ross and the Cherokee Indians"). However, the girls in St. Lucy’s lost their bonds with their parents because the parents signed them up for St. Lucy’s (St. Lucy’s). According to the author of St. Lucy’s there was a bond broken between Claudette and her family (St. Lucy’s). Later on, Claudette went
Verkuyten, M., and G. A. Kwa. "Ethnic Self-Identification, Ethnic Involvement, and Group Differentiation Among Chinese Youth in the Netherlands." Journal of Social Psychology 136 (1996): 35-48.
Assimilation means adapting to a society or culture by learning there ways of life. In this case, for the immigrants based in the United States, assimilation is the key to being accepted as an American. In the early 1960s the U.S had formed strategies that limited the amount of immigrants coming into the country; this mostly favored the Europeans from the North. Later, the Immigration and Nationality Act was approved and this allowed more Asians, Africans and Latin Americans into the U.S. this resulted to an increase in influx of both illegal and legal immigrants allowed in the country.
The Allotment and Assimilation Era of the 1880’s to the 1930’s had a widespread and devastating impact on the Native American population in the United States. These two policies were attempts by the U.S. Federal Government to separate tribes, and indoctrinate the Native American youth to further assimilate the Native American population into the western body of culture. These policies were allotment, which broke apart the tribal land of the Native American people, and boarding schools, which attempted to teach the Native American youth about western culture and ways.
Aboriginal forced assimilation By the early 1960s and the first half of the 20th century, the Australian government sought to create a single, uniform white Australian culture. This was due to the assimilation policy, which had a devastating impact on the Indigenous society. Forced assimilation is a process of cultural enforced assimilation of religious groups or ethnic groups, which are usually carried out by large communities. New practices in worship, literature, education, and legislation are considered forced assimilation. At that time the white people thought that the Indigenous people would inevitably die.
One of the most important concepts that I have learned from class is Assimilation Theory. This theory is based on the adaptation that a certain ethnic group goes through in order to fit in and survive in the new dominant society. For example, according to the book the United States in known to be a predominantly white cultural society, therefore many ethnic groups from all over who choose to come to the U.S often have to assimilate and adapt to the social and cultural norms. Assimilation theory affects many ethnic groups in sense that it can change the way they behave and live in a society. Whenever another ethnic group immigrates to a place where there is a dominant ethnic group they often have to assimilate to the dominant group’s social, economic, and cultural behaviors and customs to survive. For example in the U.S, there are many minority groups from all over the globe who immigrated to this country and they often have to go through various changes and adaptations to fit into society and gain citizenship in the country. These changes can be a challenge for them because they have to choose between their own cultural values, beliefs, and behaviors and assimilate to the U.S’ cultural values and customs. In the book it states that “their cultural ancestry is English, Scottish, Dutch and German which is the Anglo-Saxon core.” Therefore, the culture that immigrants in the U.S. have to adapt to is the Anglo-Saxon culture/ “American culture.” For most minorities immigrating to the U.S, one of the major factors that affected them is language barrier. In the United States English is the dominant language, many ...
Teske, Raymond H.C., Jr., and Bardin H. Nelson. Acculturation and Assimilation: A Clarification 1.2 (1974): 351-67. Jstor.org. Jstor.org/journals, Feb. 2013. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.
Culture can be defined as “A pattern of basic assumptions invented, discovered or developed by a given group as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration that has worked well enough to be considered valid, and therefore to be taught to the new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems”. Schein (1988)
The article’s main focus was determining the role of communication in process of assimilation of Hispanics into the greater American culture. This topic has grown increasingly important over the years as more and more hispanics are moving into the country. When these people do move into the United States they have to integrate into society in order to fully grasp the fruit of the nation. However even though they are integrating, a part of their original cultural heritage will live on and ultimately change the definition of American culture as a whole. Now when looking at this it can be seen why the study was conducted. With the researchers oral justified they went about various Midwestern schools asking their Hispanic inhabitants various closed-ended
As the rate of immigration rises, issues of acculturation and adaption will be ever-increasingly studied by cross-cultural psychologists. Thus far, research has shown that immigrants face an array of issues associated with acculturation processes, for instance having to learn to communicate in a new language (Lay & Nguyen, 1998). In addition to experiencing conflict with family members and other members of their cultural group, newly arrived immigrants also encounter intergroup hostility, prejudice and perceived discrimination for the first time (Abouguendia & Noels, 2001; Hirschman, 1996). Understanding the acculturation strategies of immigrants has led to the conceptualisation of the AIMS model (assimilation, integration, marginalisation
What is culture? Culture is the way of our life, more simply, it can be defined by our knowledge, languages, beliefs, religions, cuisines, histories, customs and traditions. “The term "culture" originally comes from social anthropology” (Kotter, 1992). There are many types of culture, such as the culture in different countries, families and organizations. First, the Asian culture and Western culture can be represented as the culture in different countries. Second, Canada has merged different background immigrates due to the Canadian multiculturalism policies. Third, the corporate cultures has many connections between each other. These cultures can be combined and integrated into one culture because product evolution, society integration and
The term “culture” refers to the complex accumulation of knowledge, folklore, language, rules, rituals, habits, lifestyles, attitudes, beliefs, and customs that link and provide a general identity to a group of people. Cultures take a long time to develop. There are many things that establish identity give meaning to life, define what one becomes, and how one should behave.