Is the United States a

1
Assimilation or Integration?

• Is the United States a
• melting pot or a salad bowl?

Fill him in with American, traits, values, ideas,
and culture
2
Melting Pot

• The melting pot is an analogy for the way in
  which homogeneous societies develop, in which the
  ingredients in the pot (people of different
  cultures, races and religions) are combined so as
  to develop a multi-ethnic society.

3
J. Hector St. John de Crevecouer (1782)
Letters from an American Farmer

• leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices
  and manners, receives new ones from the new mode
  of life he has embraced, the government he obeys,
  and the new rank he holds. He becomes an American
  by being received in the broad lap of our great
  Alma Mater. Here individuals of all nations are
  melted into a new race of men, whose labors and
  posterity will one day cause great changes in the
  world."

4
Cultural Assimilation

• when an individual or individuals adopts aspects
  of the characteristics of a dominant culture
  (such as its religion, language, manners etc.).
  It sometimes is the result of cultural
  imperialism or forced assimilation but it can be
  and often is voluntary.

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Three Models of Assimilation

• 1. Straight-line or Convergence Model
• 2. Racial/Ethnic Disadvantage Model
• 3. Segmented Assimilation Model

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Straight-line or Convergence Model

• This theory sees immigrants becoming more similar
  over time in norms, values, behaviors, and
  characteristics. This theory also expects those
  immigrants residing the longest in the host
  population, as well as the members of later
  generations, to show greater similarities with
  the majority group than immigrants who have spent
  less time in the host society.

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Racial/Ethnic Disadvantage Model

• The second, racial/ethnic disadvantage model
  states that immigrant's chances to assimilate are
  "blocked". An example of this model would be
  discrimination and institutional barriers to
  employment and other opportunities.

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Segmented Assimilation Model

• The third, the segmented assimilation model
  theorizes that structural barriers, such as poor
  urban schools, cut off access to employment and
  other opportunities obstacles that often are
  particularly severe in the case of the most
  disadvantaged members of immigrant groups, and
  such impediments can lead to stagnant or downward
  mobility, even as the children of other
  immigrants follow divergent paths toward classic
  straight-line assimilation.

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Four Ways to Measure Assimilation

• 1. Socioeconomic Status
• 2. Spatial Concentration
• 3. Language Attainment
• 4. Intermarriage

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Socioeconomic Status

• is defined by educational attainment, occupation,
  and income. By measuring socioeconomic status
  researchers want to find out if immigrants
  eventually catch up to native-born people in
  terms of human capital characteristics.

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Spatial Concentration

• is defined by geography or residential patterns.
  The spatial residential model states that
  increasing socioeconomic attainment, longer
  residence in the U.S, and higher generational
  status lead to decreasing residential
  concentration for a particular ethnic group.

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Language Attainment

• is defined as the ability to speak English and
  the loss of the individual's mother tongue.The
  three-generation model of language assimilation
  states that the first generation makes some
  progress in language assimilation but remains
  dominant in their native tongue, the second
  generation is bilingual, and the third-generation
  only speaks English

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Intermarriage

• is defined by race or ethnicity and occasionally
  by generation. High rates of intermarriage are
  considered to be an indication of social
  integration because it reveals intimate and
  profound relations between people of different
  groups, intermarriage reduces the ability of

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Melting Pot or Salad Bowl
Are we melting into one?
Or are we still separate? Integrate?
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E Pluribus Unum
From Many, One