“The Hispanic Challenge,” by Samuel Huntington argues that the heavy and persistent inflow of Hispanic immigrants is creating a division in United States. He states that this is not only a division of two peoples, but of two cultures and two languages. Huntington compares the Hispanic immigrant community in the United States to all the other immigrant groups in the country, and states how this group has not assimilated like the others. According to Huntington, some of the contributing factors to the gradual Hispanization of the United States include the proximity of the countries, income inequalities, increased availability of transportation, pride in Spanish language and ethnic culture, Mexican entitlement, high fertility rates among Hispanic …show more content…
I found Huntington’s piece to be very interesting, informative and slightly alarming. As he expounded upon the notion that the current persistent flow of Hispanic/Latino immigration is leading to loss of American identity, he broke his reasoning down into 6 categories- contiguity, scale, illegality, regional concentration, persistence, and historical presence. To briefly explain, contiguity relates to the fact that the Mexican border’s proximity is much closer, making the journey from Mexico to America easier. Scale signifies the appeal of the US- demographically, economically, politically, and socially- in the eyes of an immigrant. Illegality references the millions of undocumented immigrants entering the US. Most of the Mexican immigrants choose to live in southwestern states, predominantly Texas and Southern California, which is the idea of regional concentration. The persistence category states that previously, waves of immigration would subside after a period of time, but the wave of hispanics has only increased. Finally the historical presence piece, which is the most prominent, in Huntington’s eyes, is that Mexicans and Mexican Americans have been able to claim spaces in America due to the changes in historical boundaries. Historical presence also relates to the use of mother tongue amongst Mexican immigrants. …show more content…
Americans tend to generalize immigrants, focusing on the economic costs and benefits of their presence in the country, ignoring its social and cultural consequences. As a result, they have overlooked the unique problems posed by contemporary Hispanic immigration. Huntington discusses the lack of assimilation in a way that suggests that Mexicans and other Latinos have not really tried to assimilate into mainstream U.S. culture, but instead choose to form their own political,linguistic, and cultural enclaves. Educationally it is reported that Mexican origin children are falling behind due to lack of assimilation. Intermarriage rates have declined over the past 40 years. This reality poses a fundamental question: Will the United States remain a country with a single national language and a core Anglo-Protestant
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Show MoreThe Latin@ population in the U.S. is growing exponentially, "Nearly two-thirds of Latin@s in the U.S. are of Mexican descent" (Vargas ...
Oboler, Suzanne (1995). "So far from God, so close to the United States": The Roots of Hispanic Homogenization. In M. Romero, P. Hondagneu-Sotelo, & V. Ortiz (Eds.) Challenging Fronteras: Structuring the Latina and Latino Lives in the U.S. New York: Routledge, 1997.
Immigration has always been a contentious issue in the United States. Benjamin Franklin thought that the influx in German immigration would flush out the predominately British culture in America at the time. (5) Furthermore, a continual wave of foreign cultures began pouring into the American metropolitan areas at the turn of the 20th century. The migration of Italians, Poles, and Jews across the Atlantic Ocean began a mass assimilation of cultural ideology and customs into the United States, yet many people thought that these migrants could not adapt. Today, the American society has become a melting pot of foreign influence; however, many cynics remain skeptical about the incorporation of Latin American people and their influences. Accordingly, these same critics are just as naïve as their previous counterparts, who refused to accept the many gifts and contributions these immigrants have to offer. We must ask ourselves: How long will it take to peacefully incorporate Spanish immigrants into American society? America was built on the movement of these cultures, and the current population of this country must set aside its non-democratic premonitions, and embrace the historical and positive aspect of Latin American immigration.
Harvest of the Empire is a valuable tool to gaining a better understanding of Latinos. This book helps people understand how varied Latino’s in the United States are. The author also helped give insight as to how Americans reacts to differences within itself. It does this by giving a description of the struggles that every Latino immigrant faced entering the United States. These points of emphasis of the book were explained thoroughly in the identification of the key points, the explanation of the intersection of race, ethnicity, and class, in addition to the overall evaluation of the book.
Eleanor Roosevelt said, “the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” That statement holds strong for immigrants in America. Equal access to opportunities allows immigrants to achieve the American dream. Their success correlates with America’s success because of the contributions immigrants provide to America. Unfortunately, the current immigration policy in America denies many immigrants the American dream. It is crucial to understand the historical context of immigration in America. Initially, most immigrants were from Europe and were not restricted by any immigration laws. Now, most immigrants come from Latin America but are restricted to severe immigration laws. The Latino/a community is one of the most severely affected groups because the current immigration system disproportionally affects Latino/as. Recognizing how the experience of Latino/a immigrants have been both similar and different in the past from other immigrant groups and dispelling common misconceptions about Latino/as today bring an awareness how Latino/as are affected.
In this report, we will explore the Hispanic culture in the United States and try to prove how important it is to target this community due to the rapid growth of population. Since the Hispanic community has never been considered a viable target, we tend to research this group and prove how influential this group is.
Latinos have struggled to discover their place inside of a white America for too many years. Past stereotypes and across racism they have fought to belong. Still America is unwilling to open her arms to them. Instead she demands assimilation. With her pot full of stew she asks, "What flavor will you add to this brew?" Some question, some rebel, and others climb in. I argue that it is not the Latino who willingly agreed to partake in this stew. It is America who forced her ideals upon them through mass media and stale history. However her effort has failed, for they have refused to melt.
The articles I am going to look at are “Second-Generation Decline or Advantage Latino Assimilation in the Aftermath of the Great Recession” by Van C. Tran and Nicol M. Valdez, and “The Case of the Disappearing Mexican Americans: An Ethnic-Identity Mystery” by Richard Alba and Tariqul Islam. One question the research is evaluating is the social mobility and assimilation of second-generation Latinos. The research also brings up the question of how Mexican-Americans identifying, or no longer identifying, as Mexican-American has to do with their assimilation into American society.
As long as civilizations have been around, there has always been a group of oppressed people; today the crucial problem facing America happens to be the discrimination and oppression of Mexican immigrants. “Mexican Americans constitute the oldest Hispanic-origin population in the United States.”(57 Falcon) Today the population of Mexican’s in the United States is said to be about 10.9%, that’s about 34 million people according to the US Census Bureau in 2012. With this many people in the United States being of Mexican descent or origin, one would think that discrimination wouldn’t be a problem, however though the issue of Mexican immigrant oppression and discrimination has never been a more prevalent problem in the United States before now. As the need for resolve grows stronger with each movement and march, the examination of why these people are being discriminated against and oppressed becomes more crucial and important. Oppression and Anti-discrimination organizations such as the Freedom Socialist Organization believe that the problem of discrimination began when America conquered Mexican l...
Gonzalez, Juan. Harvest of Empire a History of Latinos in America. New York: Penguin Putnam Inc, 2000.
Mexican American struggles in the United States date back to the Spanish discovery of the New World in 1492. For over five hundred years, Mexicans have endured social injustices and inequalities at the hands of their superiors. The mistreatment of the native people of this land is constantly overlooked for "…the main goals shaping Spanish colonial policy were to maintain and expand political control and to convert Indians to Christianity." (Vargas p.30) With this mindset, the basic nature of relations between the dominant Anglos and the inferior Mexicans was that of suppression, rejection, ignorance and separation as opposed to establishment of ideals that would foster cultural relations and produce the true definition of a "melting pot" society.
and often settle in places that are of similar culture and ethnicity to their home country. According to Paul A. Jargowsky’s article Immigrants and Neighborhoods of Concentrated Poverty: Assimilation or Stagnation?, getting settled in an ethnically concentrated neighborhood that provides a strong sense of community can become a “benefit to a newly arriving immigrant” (1132). These neighborhoods can help lessen the culture shock and can become a support system called the ‘barrio advantage.’ This system counterbalances the disadvantages living in such a neighborhood may cause. There are immigrants who are content with finding a “little Mexico” in the U.S. and only assimilate to the new neighborhood’s ways. On the other hand, Angela S. Garcia’s article, Hidden in Plain Sight: How Unauthorized Migrants Strategically Assimilate in Restrictive Localities in California, presents the idea that some immigrants want to get rid of their clear Mexican customs because “when a minority group is oppressed or subject to discrimination, members may react by attempting to lose their identity with the minority in order to become absorbed into the powerful majority” (1198-99). Assimilation can occur in levels, and to different groups, not just towards the dominant
All the problems associated with immigration, Hanson argues, can be blamed upon their resistance to adapt to American ideals, culture and the English language; again a compelling argument that leaves America and assimilated Americans blameless. Hanson’s simplistic outline of how those in the past have assimilated is persuasive yet the lack of details and exclusion of other economic factors put into question the validity of his point. His descriptions of other immigrant groups are stereotypical and he uses broad brushstroke descriptions to describe more complicated situations. His perception is that all other immigrants have learned English and improved themselves culturally by assimilating. He consistently looks down upon Mexican immigrant’s attempt to maintain their own culture and language without clearly linking it to the poverty and crime he complains
Through the history and trends of Latin American immigration, one can begin to understand the impact of immigration on American society. Latin American countries have not always been the leading countries of origin for immigrants to the United States; however, with the Immigration and Nationality Act, they surpassed European countries’ immigration and rose to the top (1). Subsequently, a number of Hispanics ca...
Portes, Alejandro, and Ruben G. Rumbaut. Immigrant America: A Portrait. N.p.: University of California Press, 2006.