Reasons and Disadvantages of Resistance to Assimilation

Despite the fact that many groups have immigrated to the United States and come from diverse ethnic origins, they have been successful in maintaining their traditions and have avoided assimilating into those of the country’s inhabitants. The majority of these immigrants establish themselves in communities centered on their respective cultures, such as Little Saigon in Garden Grove, California, and Little Havana in Miami, which are home to the majority of Hasidic Jewish communities, as well as Amish communities and other communities that are predominantly Islamic. Nevertheless, there is kept a feeling of importance in preserving the culture despite moving to foreign lands so that one does not lose touch with his roots and where he comes from. It also helps with establishing the grounds preservation of lineage and culture by it being taught to the younger generations (Young 98).

The groups are usually resistant to change due to certain reasons, such as (even highly democratic) the American society being discriminative and having certain negative stereotypes of people from external ethnic groups, i.e. immigrants. Therefore, the immigrants find it safer to remain in their own cultural circle which is theoretically a non-sense because the less one is different, the less discrimination he receives. Also, the immigrants believe that their accepting to be assimilated into American culture leads to them being robbed of their self-esteem, history and culture as well as the process being insidious (Spring 66).

The groups are also resistant to be assimilated into the American culture with perspectives which have developed over time about American violence towards immigrant and minority groups. Over the past years there have been cases of crimes against minority groups such as Afro-Americans, Filipinos, Hispanics, and now Muslims. These hate and racial crimes have been a reason for most of the immigrants to live in cultural or ethnic based communities where they feel safer being around their own instead of being in areas where they are prone to the crimes against humanity. These crimes even nowadays are propagated by certain representatives of public authority, which is going to make the situation even worse. Of course, these actions may be explained by political unrest and terrorism, and they are indeed quite serious barriers to intercultural communication. But doesn’t it deny the whole ‘being American’ thing?

Another reason the immigrant groups arrive to America is the promise of better living, including work, environment and other promises of a brighter future. Denied to have equal working opportunities for self-growth and development, they can hardly become better community members. For example, despite doing their best in getting accustomed to American way of living, Mexicans and immigrants from Philippines are usually looked down upon; they are still assigned to work tasks which are not as promising as they are assured, and often are considered as cheap labor force. Therefore, people feel some sense of betrayal in the American society when it comes to being assimilated into their culture (Huntington 6).

However, there are adverse effects which come up with such resistance and refusal to be assimilated into Americanized ways of living. For instance, there is lack of opportunities due to work opportunities, especially those categorized as white collar jobs with a specific requirement for the applicants to be citizens of the US and possess fluency in English. Therefore, there is a strong necessity for the immigrants to make adjustments so that they are not locked out of promising opportunities which can help them grow substantially (Omi 69).

Obviously, it is a double edge effect, and both sides should make efforts for productive and peaceful living. Accepting society got to be more tolerant. Immigrating groups need to work hard on their new way of living. That, of course, doesn’t mean leaving the entire heritage behind and all the traditions to fall into oblivion. There are numerous opportunities in moving to the United States; it’s undoubtedly worth of making a little bit more efforts and taking a risk. Complete resistance to assimilation will keep the bright promising future away as far as possible, and an immigrant will never be treated as an equal. Work feeds a man, while sloth ruins him. Therefore, one should remember where he comes from, but do his best in reaching what his ambitions are aimed at, even if that means language assimilation, or accepting new traditions and an absolutely new cultural background.

Works Cited

Huntington, Samuel P. “25 The Hispanic Challenge.” A Language and Power Reader (2013): 6.

Omi, Michael, and Howard Winant. Racial formation in the United States. Routledge, 2014: 35-73

Spring, Joel. Deculturalization and the struggle for equality: A brief history of the education of dominated cultures in the United States. Routledge, 2016:54-99

Young, Robert J.C. Postcolonialism: An historical introduction. John Wiley & Sons, 2016: 97-107