Assimilation is the process by which a person or a group 's language and/or culture come to resemble those of another group. Rodriguez says that he is not for assimilation any more that he is in favor for it, that assimilation is a natural occurrence that just happens. But he does position himself more towards supporting assimilation in American. He clearly believes in integration of minorities to American society in every way possible cultural and linguistically. Anglo Americans have a conflicted and confused view of assimilation, tending to ignore and at times build hate for people much different than them. Americans have often resisted assimilation, especially if it meant race mixing or cultural blending. Rodriguez says that “The American conversation about race has always been a black and white conversation, but the conversation has become as bloodless as badminton” (88). America has often ignore other races of people and only tends to talk about the different between black and white America. Therefor only acknowledging a small group of minorities in American. This conversation has kept repeating without new dialogue becoming repetitive and leading nowhere. This is a way things are being done in America to resist true and full integration of the minority’s to the masses. However, in spite of this resistance to assimilation, Rodriguez believes that Americans actually prefer a Canadian model or definition of assimilation which focuses on diversity. Rodriguez says “America has so readily adopted the Canadian notion of multiculturalism because it preserves our preference for thinking ourselves separate ( ). Meaning that even though we try to seem as a diverse country and welcoming, we have this code of not mixing with other cu... ... middle of paper ... ...ions of people leaving in the U.S. The dream act will bring people together crating a true nation of opportunity. Also, this legislation will give a path to citizenship opening doors that had never been there, creating a new generation and driven hard working Americans. According to O’Conner: Many supports believe the legislation would be a good deal for taxpayers. If these people achieve legal residency status and higher education they will make more money, pay more taxes and receive fewer social services, according to the Human Rights Coalition. (98) As the quote states above there is nothing to lose with this legislation passing. There could only be positive benefits from it. Bringing America to a whole new playing field full of new people that have the desire to work hard and achieve greatness, translating to a more prosperous country, economically and socially.
When the Dream Act is put into play, its positive effects are more numerous than the negative ones. With this act, undocumented children are given an education and a future. What is better than an educated America? With education, America can be even more dominant. Everyone, despite their legal classification, deserves to have the option of success. On the matter of money, taxpayers would not have to pay $16.2 billion annually on behalf of deportation fees. With these children growing to be citizens, they will have to pay taxes which will also help the growing deficit. America was born on the morale that all people deserve a safe asylum and freedom.
This essay will discuss the intrinsic relationship between diversity conceptualization and social integration presenting a response against David Brooks’ essay entitled “People Like Us.” In order to do this I will discuss four crucial elements: the influences of different definitions of diversity in cultural unification, Brook’s ideas about social groups working together and social groups coexisting together, the importance of diversity, and the influence of diversity in social changes. I will examine why some people have the perception that our American society ignore or see as unworthy diversity. Thus, I will dispute Brook’s view stating that our society disregards diversity, and Americans just pretend that it is important to them.
In conclusion, I believe that the current immigration system is broken. Millions of illegal immigrants are living undocumented in the United States. This leaves an unfair system for all current citizens that pay taxes and immigrants looking to migrate into the country legally. Clearly there is a dire need for reform, and the proposal presented offers many solutions that can boost our economy and create various new jobs. The national GDP will increase heavily over the years and tourism profits will skyrocket as well as boosting our economy upwards. This reform can create new opportunities for the betterment of this country and allow room for growth in a variety of different aspects.
The lives of millions of immigrants are affected everyday due to limited access to acquiring legal citizenship. Out of that group there are 2.1 million children and young adults under the age of 18 that are eligible for permanent citizenship at this time (The DREAM Act). In 2001 Dick Durbin and Orrin Hatch presented a Development Relief and Education of Alien Minors (DREAM) Act that provides a path to becoming a legal citizen. The DREAM Act has yet to be passed, but there is a temporary Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)(The DREAM Act). The DREAM Act will provide options and opportunities for people to continue their path of life in America. The DREAM Act should be passed as it will benefit our economy, positively affect and strengthen our military, along with increased access to education.
Two forms of Segmented Assimilation can be used to explain these instances. The second form follows a pattern that is a downward-mobility of acculturation and integration with the new or hybrid customs of the new country, yet is being trapped in the bottom rungs of society. Similar to the way Bryan had grown up in poverty and nearly lost touch with his mother tongue. The third form being socioeconomic integration into mainstream America, where selective acculturation and deliberate preservation of ethnic community’s values, norms, and social ties. This falls in line with Eric’s family who immigrated already being relatively successful economically and education wise retaining their culture and language within their family. Both families did adopt certain nuances and values that can be described as “American” while still retaining their own culture. Both of these subjects also maintained the concepts of family and education as being of great importance. Education is also stressed in order to find a job that offers stability and security as well as enough money to live comfortably. This stems from their parents wanting their children to be auspicious and so that their immigration to the United States served a purpose. What stood out though, was that these subjects did not face much pressure to achieve exceptionally well in their education. Instead their
Studies have shown that if the law is passed the economy will improve. America needs these talents that the student have, their gifts and their drive to success. With the intelligence and the approved of this act better jobs would add up to $329 billion and 1.4 million jobs to the nation’s economy over two decades (Alan Gomez). This law benefits everyone in this country not only the undocumented youths.
Mexicans are not the first group of immigrants to encounter assimilation problems. A newspaper argues assimilation for Mexicans is more successful than many other immigrant groups in the past. Tyler Cowen, a professor at George Washington University, explains that following Mexican immigrant families for 3 to 4 decades gives a clear, concise model explaining how well they are assimilating. The first members of the family to arrive on United States soil assimilate slowly, but each generation after becomes more American through language, salary, and even divorce rates. His article details how Mexicans are on a faster track to assimilate than the Italians, Irish, Polish etc… were in the early 1900’s. He mentions a study that measures variables including salaries, property ownership, family size, crime rate, and languages spoken. When comparing Cowen’s research with Sandra Cisneros’ novel The House On Mango Street many similarities arise including the generation gap between older and younger Mexicans. The study supports this essay’s claim that Esperanza is able to assimilate into the culture without losing her own self-identity or falling into the typical gender roles defined by tradition. The ability to assimilate is more than just speaking the language; assimilation is living comfortably amongst natives and immigrants without feeling targeted or segregated.
After about twelve years of the DREAM Act floating around in congress, many people on both sides of the issue are unsure of what will happen. For some, the fact that it has been around for long without much progress means that the DREAM Act will not pass. On the other side of this issue, the dreamers, continue fighting to keep the DREAM Act alive, so that all the immigrant students can continue to post secondary education, and not have to stop their education at the end of 12th grade. These young immigrants were brought here when they were younger and have lived in the United States most of their life. They are known as dreamers because many of them cannot continue their education due to the barriers placed on them because of their undocumented status. Those who wish to continue to a post secondary education have to pay higher out-of-state tuition rates. The passing of the DREAM Act will provide a path to legalization for educated and dedicated individuals who will continue to contribute a lot to the U.S. economy and in many other ways. The majority of undocumented students were brought to the U.S. when they were small children, and they “should be allowed to have the chance to stay in the country call home” (Bennion).
On the other hand, many people like Michelle Malkin strongly believe that lawmakers should reject the bill and preserve the status quo because the bill would create “advantages for illegal immigrants over the many US-born students who struggle to attain higher education” (Malkin). While both worry about the equality of students in the U.S., they both disagree on whether illegal immigrants deserve the
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.
Many people in America want to assimilate to the U.S. because they think that being American is a better option. People such as the Italians in the 1870s tried to assimilate in order to become an American to not become an enemy in the U.S. Also, the Mexicans today are constantly coming to the U.S. to have a better life because they know being American is the best solution for their problems at home. What assimilation mean is when a person leaves one’s own culture to join a different culture the person wants to be. For the purpose of this essay, an American is a person who has commitment to succeed in what one wants, able to speak english, to love the pop culture in the U.S. at the time one is living such as the hit songs, games, T.V. shows, etc. but not to other cultures, and be a citizen in America. People throughout history must assimilate to become a true American
Back to the American history, "assimilation" policy was introduced to the Native Americans during the earliest colonial times. During that time, all American Indians must either adopt the White's lifestyles or perish. With the declaration of the Dawes Act, a goal of destroying all tribal structure and their communal life were summoned. Tribal lands were divided among natives and the Westerners, leaving the natives, a land surrounded by the foreigners. With such acts, the American Indians were slowly assimilated into the White's culture and without their own people around them, they will have to communicate with the Westerners with their language instead of their indigenous languages; they ...
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
Proponents to the DREAM Act will say that providing amnesty to the illegal immigrants will help the economy, but that is false, amnesty will only further hurt the economy, and honest American citizens. According to Jack Martin and Eric A. Ruark, authors of “The Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration on United States Taxpayers”, illegal immigrants cost U.S. taxpayers over $113 Billion dollars annually (Martin & Ruark, 2010). Broken down, this means over $29 billion on the Federal level, and $84 billion on the state and local levels. Over $52 billion of the cost at the state and local levels goes to the education of the children of illegals, and this includes the extra cost of special classes to teach them English as a second language. If this so called DREAM Act is approved, it will only increase the strain on our already struggling economy. Most of the illegals are poor, meaning over 57% are on some sort of welfare programs, many more than one (illegalimmigrationstatistics.org). If they are given full status as citizens, as the DREAM Act proposes, they will get full benefits, more than they already do, and they will be able to draw on Social Security Retirement, when it is well known that the Social Security system is already on the verge of collapse. Additionally, most illegals do not pay taxes, and most of those that do get refunds and tax credits that
For instance, Brooks himself confesses that he has himself in the past gravitated towards places where he believed he could be most comfortable in and where he also felt he could be his true self. He further states, that the majority of his friends are middle-income level Caucasians and conservative Christians. Brooks’ main argument in the essay is that many individuals in the United States often do not even bother to show that they would like to build diverse communities. The essay, Brook says, is about the public discourse on race and is meant to make us ponder about the stereotypes and assumptions we have when we think about diversity or people from other ethnicities. It is also meant to make us look where we fit in the diversity debate? Are we truly for the integration of