--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> But that's not really the way things have
> historically worked in the
> US. Here, people assimilate - and I doubt that
> that's really changed
> much from the late 19th or early 20th centuries.
> Maybe the first
> generation doesn't, but the second certainly does,
> and by the third,
> the traces of the original culture have vanished
> except for a residue
> of kitsch.
I think it really varies. Some groups (e.g. Germans) tended to assimilate quickly and lose their national identity (cf. Pennsylvania "Dutch" which is a clever makeover of Deutsch). Other, like Hispanics, tend to stay in their own cultural communities - even in Now York.
Another factor, first observed by the seminal study of immigration by Thomas and Znaniecki (_Polish peasant in Europe and America_ first published ca. 1910) is individual economic success. People who tend to be economically successful in th ehost country tend to assimilate to the host culture, whereas those who are not tend to withdraw into enthnic ghettoes with arch-conservative attitudes toward their "home" culture. I observed that among Eastern European and Mexican immigrants too - many expats tend to be more catholic than the pope in this respect.
Another thing - it is not really integration per se or lack thereof, but the salience of separate identity that matters. The Amish are not integrated at all, and live amidst very conservative rural communities - yet nobody minds their separatedness, it is even seen as "cute," because it is quaint and not in-your-face. Folks waving Mexican or Puerto Rican flgas in NYC or LA, refusing to learn English, and "demanding" that every official document is translated into Spanish are often perceived as in-your-face "aliens" who look down at their host country.
I am not saying that this necessarily is this way, but that many people see it this way and that pisses them off. As I already said on this list, people do not rebel in defense of their wallets but in defense of their dignity. If they feel being "insulted," "dissed," or "looked down" by immigrants (whether justified or not), they take offense and protest the perceived "indignity."
Wojtek
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