Prejudice

1
Assimilation and Pluralism From Immigrants to
White Ethnic to White Americans
Chapter Two
2
Assimilation and Pluralism

• Assimilation is a process in which formerly
  distinct and separate groups come to share a
  common culture and merge together socially.
• As a society undergoes assimilation, differences
  among groups begin to decrease.
• Pluralism, on the other hand, exists when groups
  maintain their individual identities.
• In a pluralistic society, groups remain separate,
  and their cultural and social differences persist
  over time.

3
Assimilation and Pluralism

• In some ways, assimilation and pluralism are
  contrary processes, but they are not mutually
  exclusive.
• They may occur together in a variety of
  combinations within a particular society or
  group.
• Some segments of a society may be assimilating,
  while others are maintaining (or even increasing)
  their differences.

4
Type of Assimilation

• Melting pot
• A process in which different groups come together
  and contribute in roughly equal amounts to create
  a common culture and a new, unique society

5
Types of Assimilation

• Americanization or Anglo-conformity
• Rather than an equal sharing of elements and a
  gradual blending of diverse peoples, assimilation
  in the United States was designed to maintain the
  predominance of the British-type institutional
  patterns created during the early years of
  American society

6
Types of Assimilation

• Under Anglo-conformity, immigrant and minority
  groups are expected to adapt to Anglo-American
  culture as quickly as possible.
• Americanization has been a precondition for
  access to better jobs, education, and other
  opportunities.
• But Americanization has also created conflict,
  anxiety, demoralization, and resentment.

7
The Traditional Perspective on Assimilation
Theories and Concepts

• Robert Park and Race Relations Cycle
• Contact
• Competition
• Accommodation
• Assimilation
• Assumed that assimilation is inevitable in a
  democratic and industrial society
• In a political system based on democracy,
  fairness, and impartial justice, all groups will
  eventually secure equal treatment under the law.

8
The Traditional Perspective on Assimilation
Theories and Concepts

• Milton Gordon, Assimilation in American Life
  (1964)
• Differentiated between
• Culture
• Social structure
• Primary networks
• Secondary networks

9
Gordons Stages of Assimilation
10
The Traditional Perspective on Assimilation
Theories and Concepts

• Human Capital Theory - Explains success achieved
  by an individual in terms of individual
  characteristics and abilities such as educational
  level and skills.
• More a status attainment theory (High levels of
  affluence and occupational prestige are the
  result of superior education that makes affluence
  possible more so than being born into a
  privileged status ) than assimilation theory
• Incomplete in explaining status attainment as it
  de-emphasizes structural factors in favor of
  individual factors
• Also assumes fairness in U.S. society

11
Pluralism

• Horace Kallen (1915) rejected the notion of Anglo
  conformity, which was inconsistent with democracy
  and other core American values.
• Evidence that full assimilation has not
  materialized, even among European ethnic groups
• Interest in pluralism has also increased due to
• Increasing U.S. diversity
• Global conflicts rooted in ethnic differences
• Multiculturalism has been and will be an ongoing
  debate

12
Types of Pluralism

• Cultural pluralism exists when groups have not
  acculturated and each maintains its own identity.
• Structural pluralism exists when a group has
  acculturated but not integrated. That is, the
  group has adopted the Anglo-American culture but
  does not have full and equal access to the
  institutions of the larger society.
• Integration without acculturation reverses the
  order of Gordons first two phases
• Enclave establishes its own neighborhood and
  relies on a set of interconnected business for
  its economic survival and
• middleman minorities relies on small shops and
  retail firms, but the businesses are more
  dispersed throughout a large area rather than
  concentrated in a specific locale

13
English Speaking Generations
14
Other Group Relationships

• Separatism goes well beyond pluralism and exists
  among groups in French Canada, Scotland,
  Chechnya, Cyprus, southern Mexico, Hawaii, etc.
• Revolution seeks to switch places with the
  dominant group and become the ruling elite or
  create a new social order

15
Other Group Relationships

• Dominant groups may engage in forced migration or
  expulsion, extermination or genocide, and
  continued subjugation of the minority group.

16
From Immigrants to White Ethnics

• A massive immigration from Europe began in the
  1820s
• They came as immigrants, became minority groups
  upon their arrival , experienced discrimination
  and prejudice in all its forms, went through all
  the varieties and stages of assimilation and
  pluralism, and eventually merged into the society
  that had rejected them

17
From Immigrants to White Ethnics

• Industrialization and Immigration
• Industrialization destroyed the traditional way
  of life as it introduced new technology,
  machines, and new sources of energy to the task
  of production. In response, peasants began to
  leave their home villages and move toward urban
  areas
• The first wave or Old Immigration came from
  Northern and Western Europe in the 1820s the
  second wave or New Immigration began arriving
  from Southern and Eastern Europe in the 1880s

18
From Immigrants to White Ethnics

• Northern and Western European immigrants included
  English, Germans, Norwegians, Swedes, Welsh,
  French, Dutch, and Danes. These groups were
  similar to the dominant group in their racial and
  religious characteristics and also shared many
  cultural values with the host society, including
  the Protestant Ethic.
• Immigrants from Norway On a per capita basis,
  Norway sent more immigrants to the U.S. before
  1890 than any European nation except Ireland
• Immigrants from Germany The stream of
  immigration from Germany was much larger and
  German Americans left their mark on the economy,
  the political structure, and the cultural life of
  their new land

19
From Immigrants to White Ethnics

• Assimilation patterns By and large,
  assimilation for Norwegian, German, and other
  Protestant immigrants from Northern and Western
  Europe was consistent with the traditional views
  discussed earlier
• Immigrant laborers from Ireland and Southern and
  Eastern Europe these immigrant laborers came
  in two waves the Irish took part of the Old
  Immigration, while Italians and other Southern
  and Eastern Europeans made up the New Immigration
  

20
From Immigrants to White Ethnics

• Eastern European Jewish Immigrants and the Ethnic
  Enclave Jewish immigrants from Russia and other
  parts of Eastern Europe settled in the urban
  areas of the Northeast and Midwest NY city was
  the most common destination.
• Unlike most European immigrant groups, Jewish
  Americans became heavily involved in commerce and
  often found ways to start their own businesses.
• The enclave economy and the Jewish neighborhoods
  established by the immigrants proved to be an
  effective base from which to integrate into
  American Society.

21
From Immigrants to White Ethnics

• Chains of Immigration All of the immigrant
  groups tended to follow chains established and
  maintained by the members of their groups.
• Someone from a village would make it to the
  United States the successful immigrant would
  send word to the home village within months,
  another immigrant from the village, perhaps a
  relative, would show up at the address of the
  original immigrant

22
The Campaign against Immigration Prejudice,
Racism, and Discrimination

• Anti-Catholicism Much of the prejudice against
  the Irish and the new immigrants was expressed as
  anti-Catholicism
• Anti-Semitism Jews faced intense prejudice and
  racism as they began arriving in large numbers in
  the 1880s
• The prejudice and racism direct against the
  immigrants also found expression in organized,
  widespread efforts to stop the flow of
  immigration. The National Origins Act established
  a quota system that limited the number of
  immigrants that would be accepted each year from
  each sending nation, a system that was openly
  racist, allocating nearly 70 of the available
  immigration slots to the nations of Northern and
  Western Europe.

23
Patterns of Assimilation

• The Importance of Generations - It takes time to
  become completely Americanized.
• First generation (immigrants) - Settled in ethnic
  neighborhoods and make limited movement toward
  acculturation and integration. Focused energies
  on family and social relationships.
• Second generation (children of immigrants) -
  Psychologically or socially marginalized as part
  ethnic, part American. Many experience conflict
  between school and home worlds which reflected
  different cultures. Enjoyed wider choices and
  opportunities than their parents.
• Third generation (grandchildren of immigrants) -
  Usually born and raised in non-ethnic settings.
  English is their first language. Ethnicity is a
  minor part of their self-image. Attain high
  levels of integration at secondary and primary
  levels.

24
Comparisons Between Italians and White
Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs)
25
Patterns of Assimilation

• Ethnic Succession
• A second factor that shaped the assimilation
  experience is captured in the concept of ethnic
  succession or the myriad ways in which European
  ethnic groups unintentionally affected each
  others position in the social class structure of
  the larger society.
• Politics After a period of acculturation and
  adjust, the Irish began to create their own
  connections with the mainstream society and
  improve their economic and social position

26
Patterns of Assimilation

• Ethnic Succession
• Labor unions The labor movement provided a
  second link between the Irish, other European
  immigrant groups, and the larger society.
• Religion A third avenue of mobility for the
  Irish and other white groups was provided by the
  religious institution.
• Other pathways besides party politics, the
  union movement, and religion, European immigrant
  groups forged pathways of upward mobility.
• Sports
• Criminal Activity

27
Patterns of Assimilation

• Continuing Industrialization and Structural
  Mobility
• Structural mobility resulted more from changes in
  the structure of the economy and the labor market
  than from any individual effort or desire to get
  ahead

28
Variations in Assimilation

• Degree of Similarity the degree of resistance,
  prejudice, and discrimination encountered by the
  different European immigrant groups varied in
  part by the degree to which they differed from
  these dominant group characteristics

29
Variations in Assimilation

• The record numbers of Southern and Eastern
  Europeans arriving in the New Immigration of the
  early 20th century raised fears that U.S. cities
  and institutions would be swamped by hordes of
  what were seen as racially inferior,
  unassimilable immigrants
• Thus, a preference hierarchy was formed in U.S.
  culture that privileged Northern and Western
  Europeans over Southern and Eastern Europeans and
  Protestants over Catholics and Jews. This
  hierarchy of ethnic preference is still a part of
  American prejudice, although it is much more
  muted today
• Ex the FHA

30
Variations in Assimilation

• Religion - A major differentiating factor in
  immigrant experiences.
• Kennedy (1944) found the immigrant generation
  chose marriage partners from a pool whose
  boundaries were marked not just by ethnicity, but
  also religion. As children and grandchildren of
  immigrants married based on religion but less so
  by ethnicity (i.e., a triple melting pot)
• Herberg (1960) - Acculturation didn't affect all
  aspects of ethnicity equally. European
  immigrants wee encouraged to learn English, for
  example, but not to change their religious
  beliefs. Religion became a vehicle by which
  immigrants could convey their ethnicity.

31
Variations in Assimilation

• Social class - A central feature of social
  structure that affected immigrants.
• Gordon (1964) argued that the U.S. in the 1960s
  had not three, but four melting pots, one for
  each of the major ethnic/religious groups and one
  for black Americans, which were subdivided by
  class. Believed the intersection of
  religious/ethnic and social class boundaries or
  "ethclass" was the most significant structural
  unit in U.S. society.
• Social class affected structural integration.

32
Variations in Assimilation

• Gender - Experiences of women immigrants recorded
  less than were men's experiences.
• Many immigrant women came from patriarchal
  cultures and had less access than men to
  leadership roles, education, and good
  occupations.
• Men immigrants outnumbered women immigrants.
• Women immigrants' experiences varied depending on
  their country of origin.
• Women also began the process or acculturation and
  integration. For example, many Irish immigrants
  were young single women who came to the U.S.
  seeking jobs.
• The type and location of women's employment
  varied. Irish women, for example, concentrated
  in domestic work and factories. Italian women
  did tasks that could be done at home such a
  laundry and piecework. Jewish women usually found
  employment in the garment industry when they
  worked outside the home. Often they worked in
  small family-owned shops.
• Women's wages tended to be about half of what men
  earned.

33
Variations in Assimilation

• Sojourners (Or birds of passage)
• Some immigrants had no intentional of becoming
  American citizens and therefore had little
  interest in Americanization.

34
The Descendants of European Immigrants Today

• The largest ancestry group in the United States
  is German American.
• Integration and Equality - White ethnic groups
  are today on the verge of being completed
  assimilated.
• The Evolution of White Ethnicity
• Hansens principle of third-generation interest
  what the second generation tries to forget, the
  third generation tries to remember
• Ethnic revival a notable increase in the
  visibility of an interest in white ethnic
  heritage
• The Twilight of White Ethnicity?
• Symbolic ethnicity or an aspect of self-identity
  that symbolizes ones roots in the old country
• Gallagher proposed addendum to Hansens
  principle What the grandson wished to remember,
  the great-granddaughter has never been told.

35
Educational Attainment 1990
36
Household Income and Families Living in Poverty
for White Ethnic Groups 1990
37
Contemporary Immigrants Does the traditional
perspective apply?

• Assimilation today is fragmented or segmented and
  will have a number of different outcomes some
  groups will integrate in the middle-class
  mainstream, others will find themselves
  permanently mired in the impoverished, alienated,
  and marginalized segments.

38
Implications for Examining Dominant-Minority
Relations

• Minority group status has much more to do with
  power and the distribution of resources than with
  simple numbers or the percentage of the
  population in any particular category.

39
Comparative Focus Immigration, Emigration, and
Ireland

• Like the United States, Ireland finds itself
  dealing with diversity and debating what kind of
  society it should become.
• The number of newcomers entering Ireland
  increased by 5 times between the mid-1990s and
  2007, to over 100,000, and the number of people
  leaving decreased dramatically, to less than
  25,000.
• These numbers are miniscule compared to the
  volume of immigrants received by the U.S. each
  year, but the percentage of the Irelands
  population that consists of immigrants (12) is
  actually comparable to the United States (13)

40
Comparative Focus Immigration, Emigration, and
Ireland

• The immigration is changing the racial
  composition of Irish society.
• Although still a small minority of the total
  population, the number of Irish residents of
  African descent has increased by a factor of 7
  since 1996. Similarly, the number of Irish of
  Asian descent increased by a factor of 6.
• Although many Irish are very sympathetic to the
  immigrants and refugees, others have responded
  with racist sentiments and demands for exclusion,
  reactions that ironically echo the rejection
  Irish immigrants to the U.S. experienced in the
  19th Century.

41
Comparative Focus Immigration, Emigration, and
Ireland

• The rejection of non-Irish newcomers was
  manifested in the passage of the Citizenship
  Amendment to the Irish constitution, which was
  overwhelmingly supported (80 in favor) by the
  Irish electorate in June 2004.
• Prior to the passage of the amendment, any baby
  born in Ireland had the right to claim Irish
  citizenship.
• The amendment denied the right of citizenship to
  any baby that did not have at least one Irish
  parent and was widely interpreted as a hostile
  rejection of immigrants.
• One poll suggested that people supported the
  amendment because they believed that there were
  simply too many immigrants in Ireland.