Read complete books and articles on: Assimilation in America

Americanization - term used to describe the movement during the first quarter of the 20th cent. whereby the immigrant in the United States was induced to assimilate American speech, ideals, traditions, and ways of life. As a result of the great emigration from E and S Europe between 1880 and the outbreak of World War I (see immigration), the Americanization movement grew to crusading proportions. Fear and suspicion of the newcomers and of their possible failure to become assimilated gave impetus to the movement. Joined by social workers interested in improving the slum conditions surrounding the immigrants, and by representatives of the business and industrial world, organizations were formed to propagandize and to agitate for municipal, state, and federal aid to indoctrinate the immigrants into American ways. The coming of World War I with the resultant heightening of U.S. nationalism strengthened the movement. The Federal Bureau of Education and the Federal Bureau of Naturalization joined in the crusade and aided the private Americanization groups. Large rallies, patriotic naturalization proceedings, and Fourth of July celebrations characterized the campaign. When the United States entered into the war, Americanization was made an official part of the war effort. Many states passed legislation providing for the education and Americanization of the foreign-born. The anti-Communist drive conducted by the Dept. of Justice in 1919–20 stimulated the movement and led to even greater legislative action on behalf of Americanization. Virtually every state that had a substantial foreign-born population had provided educational facilities for the immigrant by 1921. The passage of this legislation and the quota system of immigration caused the Americanization movement to subside; private groups eventually disbanded.

See J. Higham, Strangers in the Land (1963).

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12 of the Best Books and Articles on: Assimilation in America

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

Assimilation, American Style » Read Now
by Peter D. Salins. 262 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

The past few years have witnessed an intensification of anti-immigration sentiment in America. Lost in the midst of the acrimony is what actually happens to immigrants once they arrive and settle here, a story that is told in Assimilation, American Style. Peter D. Salins, himself a child of...
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The past few years have witnessed an intensification of anti-immigration sentiment in America. Lost in the midst of the acrimony is what actually happens to immigrants once they arrive and settle here, a story that is told in Assimilation, American Style. Peter D. Salins, himself a child of immigrants and a leading scholar of urban affairs, makes a powerful case that, at a time when the immigrant population of the United States is growing larger and more diverse, the nation must rededicate itself to its historic mission of assimilating immigrants of all ethnic backgrounds. Reviewing the history of assimilation, he reveals how successive immigrant populations have become Americanized, despite being considered "alien" in their time - notably, the Germans, Irish, Italians, and Jews - and how assimilation continues to work among Hispanics and Asians today. America's vitality as a nation, Salins argues, depends on its being as successful in assimilating its newest immigrants as it was in integrating earlier immigrant groups. Salins advances our understanding of assimilation in two important ways. He convincingly shows how America's unique social compact of assimilation has permitted immigrants and their descendants to hold on to their ethnic traditions even as they acquired an American identity. He also documents the dire ramifications of our retreat from the ideal of assimilation in recent decades, countering the multiculturalists who ask ethnic Americans to reject assimilation in favor of ethnic separatism, and the nativists who reject further immigration together.
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2.

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Assimilation but Were Afraid to Ask, in Daedalus » Read Now
by Marcelo M. Suarez-Orozco. 30 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library
3.

Assimilation Blues: Black Families in a White Community » Read Now
by Beverly Daniel Tatum. 118 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

"Assimilation Blues contributes to an expanding body of comparative family studies. . . . a springboard for the development of more directly comparative analysis. Family research involving issues of race and class should flow naturally from insights suggested by this work. As a significant...
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"Assimilation Blues contributes to an expanding body of comparative family studies. . . . a springboard for the development of more directly comparative analysis. Family research involving issues of race and class should flow naturally from insights suggested by this work. As a significant contribution to the way we think about families, black-white relations, and social change, the book is well worth serious examination by scholars, as well as individals who find themselves in similar circumstances." Contemporary Sociology
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4.

Assimilation Differences among Africans in America, in Social Forces » Read Now
by F. Nii-Amoo Dodoo. 20 pgs.

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...Assimilation Differences among Africans in America F. NII-AMOO...Women of Color in U.S. Society , edited...The Socioeconomic Assimilation of Caribbean American Blacks."...
5.

Out of the Barrio: Toward a New Politics of Hispanic Assimilation » Read Now
by Linda Chavez. 210 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

This controversial book shatters the myth that twenty million Hispanics are a permanent underclass. Linda Chavez tells the largely untold story of Hispanic progress and achievement and considers the radical implications for bilingual education, immigration policy, and affirmative action.
6.

Paths to Inclusion: The Integration of Migrants in the United States and Germany » Read Now
by Peter H. Schuck, Rainer Munz. 328 pgs.

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This book considers the ensemble of institutions, laws and social practices which are designed to facilitate the integration of immigrants and refugees into the receiving country after they arrive.
7.

Life Lines: Community, Family, and Assimilation among Asian Indian Immigrants » Read Now
by Jean Bacon. 302 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

Asian Indians figure prominently among the educated, middle class subset of contemporary immigrants. They move quickly into residences, jobs, and lifestyles that provide little opportunity with fellow migrants, yet they continue to see themselves as a distinctive community within contemporary...
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Asian Indians figure prominently among the educated, middle class subset of contemporary immigrants. They move quickly into residences, jobs, and lifestyles that provide little opportunity with fellow migrants, yet they continue to see themselves as a distinctive community within contemporary American society. In Life Lines Bacon chronicles the creation of a community--Indian-born parents and their children living in the Chicago metropolitan area--bound by neither geographic proximity, nor institutional ties, and explores the processes through which ethnic identity is transmitted to the next generation. Bacon's study centers upon the engrossing portraits of five immigrant families, each one a complex tapestry woven from the distinctive voices of its family members. Both extensive field work among community organizations and analyses of ethnic media help Bacon expose the complicated interplay between the private social interactions of family life and the stylized rhetoric of "Indianness" that permeates public life. This inventive analysis suggests that the process of assimilation which these families undergo parallels the assimilation process experienced by anyone who conceives of him or herself as a member of a distinctive community in search of a place in American society.
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8.

A Framework for Immigration: Asians in the United States (Chap. 5 "Asian Adjustment") » Read Now
by Uma A. Segal. 468 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

Although stereotypically portrayed as academic and economic achievers, Asian Americans often live in poverty, underserved by human services, undercompensated in the workforce, and subject to discrimination. Although often perceived as a single, homogenous group, there are significant differences...
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Although stereotypically portrayed as academic and economic achievers, Asian Americans often live in poverty, underserved by human services, undercompensated in the workforce, and subject to discrimination. Although often perceived as a single, homogenous group, there are significant differences between Asian American cultures that affect their experience. Segal, an Asian American immigrant herself, analyzes Asian immigration to the U.S., including immigrants' reasons for leaving their countries, their attraction to the U.S., the issues they face in contemporary U.S. society, and the history of public attitudes and policy toward them. Segal observes that the profile of the Asian American is shaped not only by the immigrants and their descendents but by the nation's response to their presence.
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9.

Ethnic Routes to Becoming American: Indian Immigrants and the Cultures of Citizenship (Chap. Four "The Indo American Center: Integrating the Best of Both Cultures" and Chap. Six "Becoming American: The Racialized Content of American Citizenship") » Read Now
by Sharmila Rudrappa. 240 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

How does an immigrant become an ethnic American? And does American society fundamentally alter because of these newcomers? In Ethnic Routes to Becoming American, Sharmila Rudrappa examines the paths South Asian immigrants in Chicago take toward assimilation in the late twentieth-century United...
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How does an immigrant become an ethnic American? And does American society fundamentally alter because of these newcomers? In Ethnic Routes to Becoming American, Sharmila Rudrappa examines the paths South Asian immigrants in Chicago take toward assimilation in the late twentieth-century United States, where deliberations on citizenship rights are replete with the politics of recognition. She takes us inside two ethnic institutions, a battered women's shelter, Apna Ghar, and a cultural organization, the Indo American Center, to show how immigrant activism, which brings cultural difference into public sphere debates, ironically abets these immigrants' assimilation. She interlaces ethnographic details with political-philosophical debates on the politics of recognition and redistribution. In this study on the under-researched topic of the incorporation of South Asian immigrants into the American polity, Sharmila Rudrappa compels us to rethink ethnic activism, participatory democracy, and nation-building processes.
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10.

Race, Ethnicity, and Nationality in the United States: Toward the Twenty-First Century ("The Assimilation Paradigm" begins on p. 294) » Read Now
by Paul Wong. 341 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

Race, Ethnicity, and Nationality in the United States: Toward the Twenty-First Century is designed for both the general reader and the growing proliferation of racial/ethnic undergraduate courses. It provides thematic integration and synthesis of knowledge about race and ethnicity from many diverse...
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Race, Ethnicity, and Nationality in the United States: Toward the Twenty-First Century is designed for both the general reader and the growing proliferation of racial/ethnic undergraduate courses. It provides thematic integration and synthesis of knowledge about race and ethnicity from many diverse fields. Taking the racial formation perspective in the study of race, ethnicity, and nationality as its starting point, the book extends this theory in a number of ways. Throughout, the book is concerned with the changing patterns of inter-minority group relations which has tended to be neglected for a focus on white/black relations in scholarly and public discourse.
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11.

White Ethnic Neighborhoods and Assimilation: The Greater New York Region, 1980-1990, in Social Forces » Read Now
by Richard D. Alba, John R. Logan, Kyle Crowder. 30 pgs.

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...theory of spatial assimilation ( Massey 1985...establish themselves in American labor markets...1964 . Assimilation in American Life. Oxford...Choosing Identities in...
12.

Assimilation in the Promised Land: Mary Antin and the Jewish Origins of the American Self, in Prooftexts » Read Now
by Michael P. Kramer. 28 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Literature, Entire Library

...Antin, her assimilationism should place her in the mainstream of Jewish-American literary history...centrality of assimilation in Jewish-American thought and...Gartner, "...