Comp: Assimilation Past (2 Points)

• Write a TIEDIED paragraph in your CB that uses historical evidence to argue whether one must assimilate to be American. Skip lines.
• Use the outline your created according to the instructions in today’s PowerPoint to help you.
  • If you can’t view the PowerPoint, download and use Google Chrome, which has a built-in PDF viewer.
• For more information on assimilation, examine the following resources:
  • Consider where you fall on the Straight Line View of the Assimilation Process and whether the model describes you. Here, 1st generation means that you were born in another country, 2nd generation means that you’re the children of immigrants, and 3rd generation means that you’re the grandchildren of immigrants. If your parents, moved from Mexico to the US, for example, this chart is saying that, at least when they arrived, they disliked American culture but may now have warmed up to it and that you, even though you may have feelings for Mexico, prefer to live in America. You may also compare your experience to a different model, Cultural Identity in a Global City.
  • According to this Pew Research poll on whether immigrants (1st generation) and their children (2nd generation) consider themselves “typical Americans,” 2nd generation immigrants are nearly twice as likely to view themselves as these “typical Americans.”
  • The Manhattan Institute’s report on quantitative assimilation provides insights on variables to use when considering assimilation and, according to those variables, trends of assimilation (scroll to “Figure 3,” halfway down the report for information on today’s topic). Here are the variables:
    • Economic assimilation
      • Earned income: earning more money may improve your opinion of America and increase your assimilation
      • Labor-force participation and unemployment: more unemployment may mean less assimilation
      • A quantitative ranking of occupations by average income in that occupation in 1950: if all Italians remained bricklayers, for example, they wouldn’t be very assimilated; if some become doctors and lawyers, though, they assimilate into American culture more
      • Educational attainment: higher college graduation may mean more assimilation
      • Home ownership: owning your own home may tie you more closely to America than your home country
    • Cultural assimilation
      • Ability to speak English: the better your English, the more access you may have to virtually everything in America and, therefore, the more assimilated you may become
      • Intermarriage: if you’re from Cuba and you marry an Polish-American person, you may become more assimilated
      • Number of children: the smaller your family, the more assimilated you may be (Americans average just over 2 children)
      • Marital status: if your spouse lives in another country, you may be less likely to assimilate
    • Civic assimilation
      • Military service: if you serve in the US military, you are more likely to assimilate
      • Citizenship: if you become a citizen, you are more likely to assimilate (or to already have assimilated)
  • The Christian Science Monitor’s “Immigration: Assimilation and the measure of an American” places the above research in context and provides additional resources, including the US Citizenship Test.
  • Read The Atlantic’s “Why the US is So Good at Turning Immigrants into Americans” to understand assimilation in America as compared to Europe.
  • Reread Amy Tan’s “Two Kinds” to include the experience of a Chinese-American girl’s experience with assimilation in the mid-19th century. While the main character is fictional, her experiences reflect those of the author, a 2nd generation Chinese immigrant.