What I propose is to scrutinize what is typically understood by the term assimilation and then contrast it with a more adequate conceptualization of the process. How can so many Americans be mistaken about such a relatively easily verified and fundamental aspect of our national life? Yet as I will argue here, there is abundant evidence that they are. No one ever bothers to explain how both claims can be true.Įchoing immigrant leaders, nativists and restrictionists also argue that today’s newcomers are not assimilating. Alternatively, it is argued that the assimilation of such individuals into that mainstream is an insidious process that robs them of their history and self-esteem. Immigrant leaders and advocates claim that America is a racist society that will not allow “people of color” to become part of the mainstream of American life. This confusion is highlighted by the contradictory assertions we hear about the assimilation of newcomers. Indeed, if Americans better understood the process of assimilation, they might well ask for something else. I will argue here that when Americans say they want immigrants to assimilate, they may think they know what they want, but in fact they don’t understand the concept or its place in our history. “Assimilation” has become part of the liturgy of our civil religion, and like any liturgy, we repeat it without often pausing to consider what we mean by it. Yet if assimilation endures as an idea, it is a very confused and muddled one. That Salins, an academic economist, wrote this book under the auspices of the Manhattan Institute and The New Republic attests to the persistence of the assimilation idea even among some of our elites. Salins’s widely noted Assimilation, American Style (1997). I base this judgment not only on the available social science evidence (some of which I will review here), but also on the views and opinions of ordinary Americans whom I encounter as I travel about the country.

But as an animating force in our communities and in our national life, assimilation is alive and well. To be sure, assimilation is moribund among many of our elites, especially ethnic, racial, and minority group leaders. While I certainly agree with Glazer that assimilation persists as a social reality, I strongly disagree that it is dead as a national ideal or policy objective. A few years ago Nathan Glazer posed the question: “Is Assimilation Dead?” His answer was yes, more or less-certainly as a national ideal or policy objective, though he stressed that assimilation remains an ongoing social process.

Assimilation define