1
To What Extent is Immigrant Cultural Assimilation Inevitable
Teresa T. Nguyen
Global Studies and World Languages Academy
Tallwood High School
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents
2
Abstract
3
Introduction
4
Limitations
5
Cultural
Funding and Time
Methodology
6-7
Literature Review
7-11
Defining Immigrant Cultural Assimilation
8
Generational References
8
Assessing Immigrant Cultural Assimilation
8-10
Immigrants’ Enhancements to American Culture
10-11
Discussion
11-17
Understanding Immigrant Cultural Assimilation
11-13
Assessing Immigrant Cultural Assimilation
13-15
Factors Contributing to Immigrant Cultural Assimilation
15-16
Culture and Heritage becomes Enhancement
16-17
Conclusion
18-19
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ABSTRACT
Immigration becomes more prominent as the years progress, and with it, our societal
progression as well as adversity for the immigrants to come to a balance of maintaining their
mother culture, and being able to adapt to the existing one. Therefore, culture and society
becomes the center to this field of study. It will focus on the extent to which immigrant cultural
assimilation takes place. Does an individual simply drop their native culture, and adapt to the
demands of a new one? This project plans to look at this topic from an objective as well as
subjective perspective. The research will finally answer how extensive immigrant cultural
assimilation is. Kelly Walker, a teacher at Tallwood High School and Caroline T. Nguyen, a post
Harvard Attorney working on educational reforms in Malaysia, are committee members for this
research. Their experience and skills relating to the subject qualify them to be the most
compatible advisors. The researcher’s role is to gather thorough information and data to best
present her interpretation of the topic discussion by using the data collected.
The researcher will host an event that involves booths and information stands from at
least one country for each continent. Information about these cultures will be distributed and the
audience will be able to interact with representatives from each country through interactive
games, group activities, and eating a variety of foods from these countries. There will also be a
table for the United States. The table will include food, technology, and clothing that have been
influenced by the existence of the other cultures. This action will help individuals gain
perspective on the importance of culture and how it has influenced them. They will also be more
aware of other cultures. This will allow them to be more culturally tolerant.
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To What Extent is Cultural Assimilation Inevitable
INTRODUCTION
As we are expanding our international development and advancements in our economy,
public policies, and technologies, it is essential that we seek an understanding of our culture and
the ones around us. The further the advancements, the greater the demand is for us to apprehend
the importance of the factors and outcomes of immigrant cultural assimilation and how it is
influenced by demands and spheres of culture. Immigrant cultural assimilation occurs fully when
the foreign members of a host society becomes indistinguishable from the existing group.
Immigrant cultural assimilation is something that is, to an extent, inevitable to an individual that
emigrates from an area of a different culture who seeks long-term residency in a new host
country. As globalization and acculturation is becomes more prominent, culture identity becomes
tenuous and forgotten.
The concentration of this research will be the extent to which immigrant cultural
assimilation is ineluctable. When looking at the clash of cultures, it is difficult to say that it is
possible for a new member to come to a balance of adapting their culture and being able to
completely maintain their mother culture. Our world is encompassed by diversity. Globalization
and diversity fosters societal progression. Because of this, the concept of immigrant cultural
assimilation must be understood because it directly influences individuals around the world.
Nonetheless, the focus question surrounds the extent of immigrant cultural assimilation.
The study of diversity and how it affects a society is universal, but the study of the
composition of cultural homogeneity is uncommon. Thus, this research will surrogate gaps in
other research studies pertaining to immigrant cultural assimilation and cultural homogeneity.
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LIMITATIONS
Research consists of empirical and normative information. The reliability of these
informational sources is significant to the findings. Yet, some information is difficult to attain
due to various conflicting factors. To be able to configure the findings, a comparison between
three generations (first generation, second generation, and third generation) will be made using
surveys, interviews, observations, scholarly documents, and quantitative data. The United States
will be the center of focus where the majority of the data will be collected and used.
Cultural limitation. Cultural assimilation is influenced by the culture of a foreign
individual which could play a factor in prolonging the assimilation process. The understanding of
that helps better the accuracy of the research. However, not all cultures can be observed or
completely understood due to inadequate input to research. Because not every culture can be
researched, only one country will be used. The United States will be the concentration area of
this research because of its relevance and accessibility.
Funding and Time limitations. The majority of researches require funding for things
such as travel and access to major data bases. Because of funding constraints, the research relied
on available data. Time is an underlying factor in research finding. A substantial amount of
research studies often takes up to years to complete. Because the time is limited, the researcher is
unable to do extensive research. As mentioned earlier, three different generational groups will be
researched, but the researcher will be limited to data of these groups, surveys, and interviews
instead of being able to directly observe how these generations show observational evidence of
gradual immigrant cultural assimilation behavior overtime due to the necessity of the existence
over three generational life-spans of the researcher.
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METHODOLOGY
Cultural assimilation is difficult to fully understand because it must include the definition
of other cultures based on perspective. To be able to address the answer to the question and
presence of cultural assimilation, scholarly articles, research using interviews, surveys,
qualitative data, quantitative data, observational studies, and personal knowledge of the
researcher from a span of first to third generations are employed.
Two surveys were conducted on a sample population of people who have between a high
school education and a Masters degree, and individuals who are of different ethnic backgrounds
as well as generational status. There were considerable subjugated answers and opinions;
however, the survey answers were relevant and show the acknowledgement that cultural
assimilation occurs rather quickly and second generation immigrants consider themselves at least
hyphenated American( i.e. Japanese-American, German-American, Indian-American, ScottishAmerican) , some even fully American, and assimilated into American lifestyles, but have
factors that still distinguish them to be hyphenated (Appendix A) .
In addition to the two surveys, interviews and observations utilized were focused on first,
second, and third generations of foreign United States members that consisted of different ethnic
backgrounds to collect various opinions while considering information gathered via online
sources. The first interview was conducted through a phone call with second generation
immigrant, Caroline T. Nguyen, who has a BA in Social Studies from Harvard University, MPA
in Domestic Policy from Princeton University, and her JD from Columbia University School of
Law. She spent one year in Vietnam and wrote her dissertation on Work Flows in Social Science
in Saigon, and is currently in Malaysia working on educational reforms. The second interview
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was a direct interview with Paul Nguyen, a first generation Vietnamese immigrant who has a
Virginia Real Estate License and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech. He talks
about his life in the United States as a first generation immigrant and how the demands to
succeed have been a push factor for him to assimilate. These interviews will help exhume factors
resulting in cultural assimilation and some benchmarks that measure assimilation.
The scholarly articles greatly supply information for this research topic. The majority of
the articles were attained from research papers in universities and reliable organizations such as
the U.S Census Bureau. The sources include information about cultural assimilation and its
definition, benchmarks that measure the aspects of cultural assimilation, and the ways in which
culture becomes an enhancement, which is prevalent under certain factors so the assimilation
issue isn’t a problem anymore, all which explains how extensive immigrant cultural assimilation
is.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Defining Cultural Assimilation. The sources supplied surround the definition from the
Academic Encyclopedia that cultural assimilation is “a socio-political response to demographic
multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant
culture.” The term assimilation is often used with regard to immigrants and various ethnic groups
who have settled in a new land. The transfer of customs is not simply a one-way process. Each
group of immigrants contributes some of its own cultural traits to its new society.
Immigrant assimilation is a complex process in which an immigrant fully integrates themselves
into a new country. Assimilation usually involves gradual change and takes place in varying
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degrees; full assimilation occurs when new members of a society become indistinguishable from
older members.”1
Generational References. A collective definition of generation classifications:
(Cultural 2010, Day J & Shin H 2005, Grisworld, 2002, Waters 2005)

First/Recent generation (Foreign-born)

Second generation (American-born children)

Third generation (Grandchildren of the Second Generation, Children of First Generation)
Assessing Immigrant Cultural Assimilation. When measuring assimilation, comparing
generations is prominently used as a method to assess immigrant cultural assimilation. Core
measureable components of assimilation used to study past immigrants are still used to
understand immigrant assimilation today. These measurable aspects of assimilation are
socioeconomic status, spatial concentration, language attainment, and interracial marriage.2
1. Socioeconomic Status summarizes education levels, job, and salary. Comparing the
socioeconomic status of different generational immigrants and host members help
indicate if immigrants eventually catch up to native-born people in terms of labor force
characteristics. According to economist George Borjas, “Successive censuses of common
cohorts of immigrants showed recent immigrants were of lower socioeconomic status and
would not be able to catch up with or be able to have similar earning growth as the
native-born.” However, if the first-generation immigrants are compared with native-born
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2
Cultural assimilation. (2010). Retrieved November 6, 2014, from http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/280154#sel=5:79,21:3
Waters, M. (2005, January 1). Assessing Immigration Assimilation: Empirical and Theoretical Challenges. Retrieved November
9, 2014, from http://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/3203280/Waters_AssessingImmigrant.pdf?sequence=1`
9
members of the same ethnic group, which would classify as a first generation v. second
generation comparison, then it is evident that the second generation does reach economic
parity in earnings. Educational levels of the different generations are also widely used in
studies. Portes & Rumbaut3 studies show that second-generation children are inclined to
perform better than their native-born post recent immigrant peers, in regards to grades,
behavior, and work ethic (Waters, 2005).
2. Spatial/Residential Concentration is defined by residential trends. According to past
immigrant geographical studies, the majority of recent immigrants establish residency in
trending areas similar to those of other existing recent immigrants in that area (Alba, R &
Nee, V. 2003). Residential concentration limits access of population group to
infrastructure and better job opportunities, while reinforcing dimensional prejudices.
Residential segregation causes complex adaptive systems for the people. To have a
decrease in residential concentration, will result in a thinning of these borders (Fleitosa,
2009). The spatial residential model proposed by D.S Massey, states that increasing
socioecomic attainment, longer U.S residency, and higher generational status lead to
decreasing residential concentration for a particular ethnic group.4
3. Language Attainment is defined as attainment of the predominant language and the loss
of the individual’s native tongue. In accordance to the Jennifer Day and Hyon Shin of the
U.S. Census Bureau5, the ability to speak language heavily impacts earning. Inability to
speak English makes it more difficult for the individual to get a job and earn competitive
salaries in the U.S labor market due to a lack of demand for workers not proficient in
Alejandro Portes, Ruben Rumbaut’s Immigrants study in Miami and San Diego
Ellis, Mark & Goodwin-White, J. (2006).
"Generation Internal Migration in the U.S.: Dispersion from States ofImmigration?". International Migration Review 40 (4)
5 Data from Census 2000 long form used to convey how ability to speak English affect earnings; Day, J., & Shin, H. (2005). How
Does Ability To Speak English Affect Earnings. Retrieved November 8, 2014, from
http://census.gov/hhes/socdemo/language/data/acs/PAA_2005_AbilityandEarnings.pdf
3
3
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English. The results show that people who only spoke a language other than English at
home were less likely to be employed and have a full-time job. Those who were full-time
workers had a lower median in salary than those who only spoke English . Additionally, a
direct relationship between ability to speak English and employment, work status, and
earning was found for those who spoke another language at home. Those who had the
lowest English speaking ability had the lowest employment rate, were lowest rate fulltime workers, and had a median of lowest earnings. The greater the ability to speak
English, the higher the rate of employment, full-time jobs, and earning. In addition to,
those who were proficient in English, and were classified as speaking English “very well”
had a higher percentage rate of employment, working full time, and earnings the majority
of the time. The ability of a worker to speak English correlates directly with the ability or
adversity to succeed (Day, J., & Shin, H., 2005).
4. Interracial Marriage. High rates of interracial marriage are indicating factors of social
integration and immigrant cultural assimilation. The existence of this hinders the ability
of individuals to carry on a consecutive ethnic culture, so cultural identity becomes
tenuous and possibly even forgotten, forcing the family to adopt aspects of a culture that
is more dominant in society (Cultural, 2010).
Immigrants’ Enhancements to American Culture. Immigration has always been a topic
that has given rise to public disputes. As earlier century leaders and Americans have feared
the existence of immigration in society, the United States has gradually noted that it has been
a key contributor to their economical and societal progression, according to current critics of
immigration. Immigrants bring unprecedented contributions to the United States economy by
supplying business networking to other markets, allowing them to be able to trade and invest
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effectively in the global economy and its system. Immigrants do not cause Americans to lose
their jobs; they are more inclined to fill jobs that Americans do not fill, ranging from jobs at
the low to high ends of the skill range. Immigrants and their cultures keep the U.S
demographically young and has furnished productivity levels, all factors that prove culture
and immigration enhances the people, the United States and their influence in the world
(Grisworld, D., 2002).
DISCUSSION
Understanding Immigrant Cultural Assimilation. Immigration has a long history in all
countries of the world, particularly the United States, and has shifted the United States’ growing
development. Mass migration of immigrants is referred to as waves and show how immigration
has changed America.6 The 19th century was the first major wave when African migrants were
predominant. Their unethical introduction to the United States resulted in remorse, new policies
and seminal legislation, remarkably in the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S constitution, Voting
Rights Act 1965, and Brown v. Board of Education ruling, all which majorly influenced
America’s defined identity. The second major wave, the mass incursion of the Irish and German
into the U.S, caused a revolution and famine, but also the promising of industrialization. The
third major wave, immigration from Central and South America, incited intense debates about
rapidly rising number of immigrants, and policy developments that raised major security
concerns (Waggoner, 2013). Retro-observation shows that different cultures have always had
“3 Waves of Immigration That Changed America” (Waggoner, L. (2013, May 28). Immigration Reform 2013: 3 Waves Of
Immigration That Changed America. Retrieved November 15, 2014, from http://mic.com/articles/44183/immigration-reform2013-3-waves-of-immigration-that-changed-america
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different impacts on the American culture, and its ongoing existence stems progression and will
happen at a continuous rate (Census, 2014).
The demand of society for a culture to assimilate causes them to do so, because there
must be a coherence of cultures. A simple barrier, such as language, hinders development.
Studies made by Jennifer Cheeseman and Hyon B. Shin from the Population Division of the U.S
Census Bureau show that the ability to speak English directly affects earnings. People who only
spoke a language other than English at home were less likely to be employed and have a fulltime job. Those who were full-time workers had a lower median in salary than those who only
spoke English. A direct relationship between ability to speak English and employment, work
status, and earning was found for those who spoke another language at home. Those who had the
lowest English speaking ability had the lowest employment rate, were lowest rate full-time
workers, and had a median of lowest earnings. The greater the ability to speak English, the
higher the rate of employment, full-time jobs, and earnings were. In addition to, those who were
proficient in English, and were classified as speaking English “very well” had a higher
percentage rate of employment, working full time, and earnings the majority of the time(Day, J.,
& Shin, H., 2005). English is a major influencing factor of outcome, but is a miniscule form of
assimilation. There are other benchmarks that are studied to measure assimilation. As more
immigrants migrate to the United States, the question surrounds to which extent they culturally
assimilate because survival in the U.S requires minimal assimilation. Richard D. Alba and Victor
Nee’s Remaking the American Mainstream: Assimilation and Contemporary Immigration states
that immigrant cultural assimilation is prone to happen, but eventually makes an immigrant
indistinguishable to the host members of the country according to statistics . However, it is
important to remember that not all cultures have equal impacts on assimilation. Different cultures
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define immigrant cultural assimilation with focuses respective to their own motives and customs.
Therefore, immigrant cultural assimilation and the degree at which it occurs cannot be measured
using only empirical data. It is different for all individuals and happens to a point.
Immigrant cultural assimilation is often found to be a term that has an optimistic outlook
on the integration of new cultures into an existing one. We tend to use the common term
definition to understand it, but the perspective of the definition being to explain an
immigrant’s experience must be regarded in order to come to a full understanding the
extent of it. Stating that collective cohort of immigrants fully become indistinguishable
from the existing members of society is not a statement that can be made using just
numbers and data, because it is an experience that is subjective (Caroline Nguyen,
Second generation immigrant, December 1, 2014).
Assessing Immigrant Cultural Assimilation. The measures used to asses immigrant
cultural assimilation prominently is found comparing generations. Four primary benchmarks are
used to study immigrant cultural assimilation: socioeconomic status, spatial concentration,
language attainment, interracial marriage
1. Comparing the socioeconomic status of the collective generational immigrants and host
members help signify if immigrants eventually catch up to native-born people in the labor
market. According to economist George Borjas, “Successive censuses of common cohorts
of immigrants showed recent immigrants were of lower socioeconomic status and would
not be able to catch up with or be able to have similar earning growth as the native-born.”
However, if the first-generation immigrants are compared with native-born members of
the same ethnic group, which would classify as a first generation v. second generation
14
comparison, then it is evident that the second generation does reach economic parity in
earnings. Educational levels of the different generations are also widely used in studies.
Portes & Rumbaut7 studies show that second-generation children are inclined to perform
better than their native-born post recent immigrant peers, in regards to grades, behavior,
and work ethic (Waters, 2005). In the second generation, immigrants are found to have
greater average education and the third generation immigrants have the greatest average
level of education among all three (Aydemir, A., 2006).
2. According to past immigrant geographical studies, the majority of recent immigrants
establish residency in trending areas similar to those of other existing recent immigrants
in that area (Alba, R & Nee, V. 2003). Residential concentration limits access of
population group to infrastructure and better job opportunities, while reinforcing
dimensional prejudices. Residential segregation causes complex adaptive systems for the
people. To have a decrease in residential concentration, will result in a thinning of these
borders (Fleitosa, 2009). The spatial residential model proposed by D.S Massey, states
that increasing socioecomic attainment, longer U.S residency, and higher generational
status lead to decreasing residential concentration for a particular ethnic group.8 The
existence of a massive amount of homogeneous people in an area causes conflict within
the community and less job opportunities, which will hinder progression.
3. The ability to speak English heavily impacts earning. As generations progress, the ability
to speak English increases. As mentioned earlier, third generation immigrants had the
average highest level of education which meant that their ability to speak only English
was at the best.
Alejandro Portes, Ruben Rumbaut’s Immigrants study in Miami and San Diego
Ellis, Mark & Goodwin-White, J. (2006).
"Generation Internal Migration in the U.S.: Dispersion from States ofImmigration?". International Migration Review 40 (4)
7
3
15
4. High rates of interracial marriage are indicating factors of social integration and
immigrant cultural assimilation. The existence of this hinders the ability of individuals to
carry on a consecutive ethnic culture, so cultural identity becomes tenuous and possibly
even forgotten, forcing the family to adopt aspects of a culture that is more dominant in
society (Cultural, 2010).
Other measurements or indications of immigrant cultural assimilation include name changing,
owning a home, and citizenship. They are not the four primary benchmarks used, but are a form
of cultural assimilation.
Factors Contributing to Immigrant Cultural Assimilation. There exists spontaneous and
forceful factor that are contributors.
The majority of Americans would like to say that cultural assimilation happens
spontaneously, but it doesn’t. It’s something that is forced. Why would an immigrant
want to completely forget their culture and adapt a new one? Their culture is their
identity and to say that they would voluntarily become indistinguishable to the existing
group is an idea that is so optimistic and central to the motivations of the American
people. Immigrant cultural assimilation is gradual, but occurs mainly because an
individual who is not partially assimilated cannot progress. Without being able to speak
and understand English, I would not have been able to attain my degree in Electrical
Engineering. Thus, I would not have the job I have now. My salary is basically dependent
on being able to speak English and assimilated (Paul Nguyen, First generation immigrant,
November 20, 2014).
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Using the assessments and benchmarks that measure cultural assimilation, an X-Factor and a YFactor is presented.
X-Factor: Factors critical for survival

Language Attainment becomes vital for survival because as stated in the data, the ability
of an individual to speak English directly affects their earning. The less the ability to
speak English, the less the employment and success rate.

Spatial Concentration is vital to progression. To have racial segregation hinders
infrastructure and better job opportunities, while reinforcing dimensional prejudices. To
have individuals live in areas where there are not high levels of racial segregation means
that there will be better job opportunities and a higher rate of success.

Socio-Economic Status measures education levels, job, and salary. The higher the socioeconomic status, the higher the standard of living. Having a parity socio-economic status
is ideally critical.
Y-Factor: Factors not so critical for survival

Interracial Marriage is not critical for survival. An individual not married to someone of a
different ethnic background will not have less of an ability to succeed than someone who
is in an interracial marriage.

Name Changing is does not affect the ability to succeed. An individual who does not
have an English name will not have less of an ability to succeed than someone who has
an English name.
The X-Factors are the factors that are critical, hard hitting factors and become the extent of
assimilation because they determine ability to strive. The Y-Factors explored are factors that are
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soft, not so critical for survival and do not determine social status or the ability to become
successful. The Y-Factors of assimilation do not exist in all generations of immigrants and, then
become subjective to the individual.
Culture and Heritage becomes Enhancement.
English isn’t a problem for me anymore. I am proficient in English and am successful.
My ability to succeed no longer is reliant on whether or not I am assimilated into the
American culture. In fact, being Vietnamese and being able to speak German enhances
me. My job requires me to speak English, but pays me significantly higher for being able
to speak two additional languages. I attained English, resided in areas of the U.S where
there was a diverse population, and have considerable socio-economic status. My
husband is of the same ethnicity as me, and my name remained the same when I left my
Germany. However, that doesn’t mean that my children will be married to someone of
the same ethnicity or have an “American” name. I assimilated, but to a degree. My
culture plays a big part in my lifestyle, and I am still able to succeed (Caroline Nguyen,
Second generation immigrant, December 1, 2014).
As Caroline Nguyen explains how she is now enhanced by her culture instead of held back, it is
evident that immigrant cultural assimilation happens to an extent. In the first and sometimes
second generation, the ability of an immigrant to succeed relies heavily on how assimilated they
are. The X-Factors of assimilation are exercised because they are critical. The Y-Factors of
assimilation are considered because they are subjective to the individual. After the X-Factors are
attained, the individual is no longer hindered. Culture becomes an enhancement. Immigrants
have been a key contributor to the United States economical and societal progression.
18
Immigrants bring unprecedented contributions to the United States economy by supplying
business networking to other markets, allowing them to be able to trade and invest effectively in
the global economy and its system (Grisworld, 2002). Not only is culture now an enhancement to
the individual, but to society.
CONCLUSION
Immigrant cultural assimilation is defined as occurring when an immigrant adapts
cultural aspects of the host culture and disregards their own. Immigration is something that
directly impacts not only the immigrants, but the individuals in the surrounding environment. It
has become so common in the United States that it has become the country in which
demographics and information has been collected to utilize as research to understand the extent
of cultural assimilation. Sociologists have measured it using 4 benchmarks, socioeconomic
status, spatial concentration, language attainment, and rates of interracial marriage. However,
different immigrants emigrate for different reasons. Therefore, the impacts left by cultures are
different. All four benchmarks are used to measure cultural assimilation and it is theorized that
by the third generation, full cultural assimilation occurs. However, cultural assimilation can be
argued as something that happens to an extent, and not fully. It is a word that has been defined
using empirical data, but is different for all individuals so their personal experience and
normative data was used to understand the research. X-Factors and Y-Factors are presented to
understand the extent to which immigrant cultural assimilation occurs. The X-Factors presented
were the factors of assimilation critical for survival and was more of a push for assimilation.
These factors include the attainment of language, spatial concentration, and socioeconomic
status. The Y-Factors presented were the factors of assimilation that are not critical for survival.
This includes interracial marriage, name changing, and involvement in politics and government.
19
The Y-Factors can be absent in an individual, and their ability to succeed will not be jeopardized.
The Y-Factors do not exist in all generations of immigrants assimilated, and they become
subjective to the individual.
Often times, the ability of an immigrant to succeed relies heavily on the extremity of their
assimilation. In this case, once the X-Factors are attained, the immigrant no longer struggles to
succeed and the degree to which the Y-Factors are attained is subjective to the individual. The
individuals are now no longer inhibited, and their culture becomes an enhancement to them. Not
all four benchmarks have to be met in order for an individual to be fully assimilated. They may
be assimilated into the culture, but the foundation of their identity and things such as their
mother language, physical appearance, and cultural norms still are significant to the impact of
them and their kin.
20
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http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/immigrants-have-enriched-americanculture-enhanced-our-influence-world
Portes, A., & Rumbaut, R. (2001). Legacies the story of the immigrant second
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Waggoner, L. (2013, May 28). Immigration Reform 2013: 3 Waves Of Immigration That
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equence=1
22
APPENDIX A
Figure 1 shows data collected from an online survey.