AIS 430 - Islam in America quiz 2

assimilation (Chicago School)

a process of interpenetration and fusion in which people and groups acquire the memories, sentiments, and attitudes other other persons and groups and, by sharing their experience and history, are incorporated with them in a common cultural life

significance of Chicago School’s definiton

does not require the erasing of ethnic origins, unlike what is often assumed about assimilation theories; rather it defines assimilation as a set of changes that bring ethnic minorities into American mainstream society; goes against full “Americanization” 

race-relations cycle

process of how racial and ethnic groups interact over time; consists of four stages: contact, competition, accommodation, and eventual assimilation

contact

processes in the modern world economy that bring once-separated groups into closer contact

competition

the initial consequence of contact; an unstable stage where groups compete for resources and struggle to gain advantages over one another

accommodation

stable stage where a social structure of typically unequal relations among groups and an understanding of group positions have emerged

Milton Gordon

American sociologist best known for developing a multidimensional theory of assimilation

acculturation

adoption of cultural patterns of the host society. including language, dress, and other external features of American culture (middle class values of upward mobility)

structural assimilation

entry of the outside group into the institutions and host society, which is accompanied by economic integration, intermarriage, the decline of the outside group’s separate identity, and the disappearance of prejudice

group convergence/cultural fusion

• assimilation and acculturation processes can not only change one group to make it more like another, but groups can change each other as well

• shows that elements of minority cultures can be absorbed by the mainstream cultures, challenging the common conception that only one group must adopt the cultural traits of another to acculturate

straight-line assimilation hypothesis

each new generation moves toward structural assimilation; each generation moves up the socioeconomic ladder

bumpy assimilation

instead of assimilating with middle class values of the dominant culture, assimilation takes place with the lower class, outsider values

third-generation return

hypothesis that the second generation (children of the immigrant generation) feel more driven to assimilate and show that they are part of the dominant society, while the third generation are fully American and can exhibit signs of ethnicity without risking their Americanness 

status-attainment research

• the greater the socioeconomic mobility the greater the assimilation; education, income, and where one lives are variables for socioeconomic mobility

  • immigrants who moved to the US with higher degrees got better jobs and could live in the suburbs; they could assimilate more

residential mobility

• changing one’s main residence, often within a relatively short geographic distance (e.g. city to the suburbs)

• immigrants would often live in separate ethnic communities, then gradually, after a generation or two, they would start to move away, typically to areas that have more advantages (e.g. cleaner neighborhoods, better schools)

• major step towards structural assimilation

social distance

symbolic distance between groups of people that is caused by putting people into racial/ethnic categories and then ranking them, which then impacts the way people are treated and how they are expected to behave

theory

a means to help us understand the causes of a phenomenon; is the approximately true description of the underlying causes of what one seeks to explain

causation

a central cluster of diverse and specific processes (mechanisms) that produce the phenomenon 

forms of capital

• accumulated labor; resources that people have and bring to a place they immigrate to

  • examples: certain skill sets, credentials (college degrees), economic capital (money), work experience

  • impacts how they assimilate and how people use these resources within and apart from the existing structure of networks and institutions

    • groups that bring more human capital tend to assimilate more/faster

social boundary

a categorical distinction that members of a society recognize in their everyday activities and that impacts their perspectives and actions towards each other

boundary crossing

someone moves from one group to another without any real change to the boundary itself; corresponds to the classic version of individual-level assimilation (e.g. people of racial/ethnic minorities who pass as members of the majority by changing their names, dressing style, speech)

boundary blurring

implies that the social profile of a boundary has become less distinct and the clarity of social distinction has become clouded (e.g. racial mixture, like interracial marriage and increase of mixed race population)

boundary shifting

an eventual consequence of boundary blurring which results in the perceptions of physical differences (racial distinction) changing entirely (e.g. jews were considered to be a separate racial group, but now they are considered white)

rejection/isolation

no desire of outside of subgroup to become part of the dominant culture; high tension with dominant group

high tension

rejects dominant culture, prefers to be isolated from society 

acculturation/integration

readiness of sub-group to embrace extrinsic assimilation of certain dominant culture values and practices; upwardly mobile; medium tensions; contention with and some acceptance by dominant group

medium tension

unhappy with aspects of dominant culture but willing to live with it

assimilation

desire of sub group to adopt extrinsic and intrinsic assimilation; desire to identify with the dominant culture; low tension; acceptance by dominant group

low tension

embraces and identifies with the dominant culture