Kayla (a psuedonym) is a recent graduate of University of California Santa Barbara with a bachelor’s degree in Global Studies and History. She is 23 years old and is currently living with both of her parents and half-sister in Glendale, CA. She migrated from Peru at the age of thirteen in 2005 with her mother and half sister. She states that her father was already living in the United States for 13 years when they were able to migrate. She explains that the reason behind her father’s move was due to the lack of job opportunities in Peru. “My dad never really planned when he was coming to the United States. It happens to be that he got my mom pregnant and I was on the way. He couldn’t get a job after he graduated. Everyone was fleeing …show more content…
Kayla’s father migrated to maintain his family social status within his community since they were struggling in Peru. Since, he was the only one who migrated at that time, he minimized risk and maximized income for his household, which fits in with the neo classical labor migration theory. Social Network Theory could also be applied in this case. The social network theory provides resources to individual in a micro-level through networks and connections. According to Massey “Migrant networks are an important source of social capital for people contemplating a move abroad” (pg.19). By having a family in the United States, her father was able to work immediately and get paid in cash to send back home to Peru, which relates to the social network …show more content…
The final factor that I will discuss is the place of residence. Kayla lives in Glendale, California and has been in the same apartment complex since she moved to the United States. The main reason for the move to Glendale was for them to be in a good neighborhood (Kayla, pg.13). She describes the city to populated by Armenians, Koreans, Mexicans, and Caucasians. This fits the classical assimilation model because they didn’t chose to migrate to a neighborhood that was similar to their culture, instead they immersed themselves with different groups. The classical assimilation model best fits Kayla’s experience, but they are issues with it. For instance, she still keeps in touch with here culture. She explains that she reads, writes, and speak Spanish fluently, that her mother always cooks Peruvian food, that they have direct TV because they have specific Peruvian channels, and whenever she gets a chance she visits her home country (Kayla, pg.16). It seems like Kayla’s migration was planned at young age through English in Peru to the sacrifices her father made. Each played a role in he process of her migration and assimilation less
...izes that it will not be easy to hear his “intimate family voices” (284). Rodriguez explains the consequences of assimilation through social identity.
...rself in between the two, and in doing so partially “unmakes” the ethnic identity passed on to her from her ancestors. The question of whether she is more assimilated into American culture or is more dissimilated from the culture of her ancestors is arbitrary and ambiguous. She is simultaneously both and neither; she is a new person who enjoys the American way of life but will always feel burdened by the “weight” of her ancestors “upon [her]” (297).
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
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 conducting this interview the interviewee was Karina. The theme that was explored throughout this interview was the theme of education. This interview was conducted on Friday, November 25th, 2016 at my house. The total length of this interview was 65 minutes. Karina is the only girl in her family of five including her parents and three brothers. When Karina first decided to immigrate to the United States, both of her parents were against it since they were preoccupied with the journey being extremely harsh for her. Karina is a first generation immigrant who immigrated to the United States at the age of 22 in 1989. She finished college in Tepic, Nayarit, Mexico and graduated with a nursing degree. Karina would have never been able to complete
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
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
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...
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 ...
For more than 300 years, immigrants from every corner of the globe have settled in America, creating the most diverse and heterogeneous nation on Earth. Though immigrants have given much to the country, their process of changing from their homeland to the new land has never been easy. To immigrate does not only mean to come and live in a country after leaving your own country, but it also means to deal with many new and unfamiliar situations, social backgrounds, cultures, and mainly with the acquisition and master of a new language. This often causes mixed emotions, frustration, awkward feelings, and other conflicts. In Richard Rodriguez’s essay “Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood”, the author describes the social, cultural and linguistic difficulties encountered in America as he attempts to assimilate to the American culture. Richard Rodriguez by committing himself to speaking English, he lost his cultural ties, family background and ethnic heritage.
Imagine one day your mother tells you that she is leaving and is not sure with she will see you again. Imagine growing up only occasionally speaking to your mother on the phone. Immigrants make the decision to leave behind their life and move to a new place mainly because they believe it will be better for them and for the people they care about. The Book of the Unknown Americans and Enrique’s Journey show the advantages and disadvantages of parents leaving their children behind or bringing their children along when they migrate. This decision causes harsh consequences that affect the family immediately and in the future.
...he principal moral of this culture, because they choose to achieve success and they are interested only in the result. Second, the real understanding of “cultural assimilation” is What Rodriguez true believes about the effort and the sacrifice that the minority try to do and lead to be blended or be assimilated into the surrounding culture. There is no doubt that when you adopt a culture as part of our own we become a part of it. Add to the previous line, people need to start understanding that being assimilated should have the dignity and forget about inequality and differences between people, which include skin color, religion, race, and nationality. For this reason, , we have to be aware in teaching our children the value of our culture and the equality between people. In addition, now more than before, I am fearless to say where I am from or what my religion is.
generalizable to the population because the social bonds solely emphasized on typical white families. However, the psychodynamic theory managed to address the weaknesses of the social bond theory because it’s generalizable towards the population to a greater extent. For instance, psychodynamic theory interventions were tested on the African population in Nigeria who were adolescents from the lower class as these psychodynamic interventions were easy to conduct among populations in order to draw inferences (Taiwo & Osinowo, 2011, pp. 627-629).
The scholars of the Chicago School of Sociology have presented a theory of assimilation that generally states that people of different cultures and ethnicities that come into the United States (also applies to other countries as well) will have contact with American culture which will generate conflict. These people of a different culture or ethnicity will eventually acculturate and integrate into a so called “Melting Pot” of culture in which they will give off their own unique flavor but will eventually blend into mainstream society. I feel that this theory is quite eloquently constructed, but is rather limiting and not necessarily representative of every ethnic group that assimilated in the United States and should be broadened to include more possible processes than just one. Differences and similarities can clearly be seen between the ways that African Americans and European American immigrants assimilated into the United States, each were brought here for labor but had to gain their voice with very different tactics.
Social Network theory dates back to the 1950’s where Barnes (1954) is credited with coining the term. Social Network Theory is the study of how the social structure around a person, group, or organization affect beliefs or behaviors (Dunn, 1983) The theory views relationships in terms of nodes and ties. Nodes can be defined as individual actors within networks, while ties are the relationships between the actors. (Dunn, 1983). These nodes and ties are often displayed in a diagram which shows the connection between them. Unlike traditional sociological studies, Social Network Theory does not assume that it is the attributes of individual actors, but rather the attributes of the individual are less important, but rather the relationships and ties with other actors within the network is what is important.