Debates about Assimilation

Debates about Assimilation

• What are immigrants assimilating into? Is there a core culture? Are there different segments to American society that immigrants are assigned to?

Can the success of past assimilation be repeated?

• What caused the successful incorporation of European immigrants?

• Did the successful incorporation of European immigrants rest on forced Americanization or unintended consequences of other activities?

Segmented AssimilationAlejandro Portes and Min Zhou

• Three paths open to the second generation– Upward mobility into the mainstream.– Downward mobility into the underclass.– Upward mobility by maintaining ties to the

immigrant community and economy.

Segmented Assimilation

• Outcomes depend on the skills the parents bring with them, the context of reception the group faces, and the strength of the immigrant community.

• Three possible trajectories:– Consonant acculturation– Dissonant acculturation– Selective acculturation

Consonant Acculturation

• Parents and children abandon old ways and language at the same rate and adopt American ways and English at the same time.

• Most common among middle class immigrants and their children.

• Outcome:Mostly upward assimilation, blocked at times by discrimination.

Dissonant Acculturation

• Children become Americanized more quickly than the parents.

• Upsets the authority of the parents.• Increases the influence of peers.• Outcome: Downward Assimilation

Selective Acculturation

• Ethnic community includes the children, supports the parents, cushions both generations move into American culture.

• Children have better retention of parents language, more ethnic friends, and do better in school.

• Outcome: Upward assimilation combined with biculturalism.

Mode of Incorporation

• Government policy: refugee, economic migrant or undocumented

• Societal: Race• Communal: Immigrant community itself. Are

there middle class and working class people? Are they organized and cohesive?

Evidence on Second Generation Assimilation

• De-couple Americanization and socioeconomic mobility.

• Americanization can be bad for you.• Perceptions of discrimination rise over time• Bilingual kids did best in school• Social class has very strong effect

Coercion or Individual Choice?

• Limits and possibilities of Americanization campaigns.

• Americans have an image of past assimilation as the “invisible hand” They are wary of government involvement.

What does it mean to be an American?

– Samuel Huntington: There is no Americano dream. There is only the American dream created by an Anglo Protestant society. Mexican Americans will share in that dream only if they dream in English.

Gov’t support for assimilation

• Should it be up to the government to help racial and ethnic groups change so that they blend into the larger society, or should this be left up to the groups themselves?– 78% Up to Groups Themselves– 22% Government

Government Help for Immigrants

• The Irish, Italians, Jews, and many other minorities overcame prejudice and worked their way up. Today's immigrants should do the same without any special favors.– 82% agree

Invisibility of Assimilation

• The cutoff of European migration in the 1920s meant that over the course of the 20th Century there was no replenishment of the “ethnicity” of European immigrants. The ethnic groups aged.

• Their assimilation into American society was very visible.

• Current immigrants are being replenished and their assimilation is often hidden.

Comparing Europe and U.S.

• Why compare?– You can see assumptions that are often

unexamined by using a comparative lens.– Understand how institutions operate to affect

immigrants– Understand the experience of Muslims in the US

and Europe

Comparative View

• Compare Policies– Who gets in?– Integration Policies

• Industrialized Countries are all facing Low Birth Rates and the Need for Immigrants

Comparative View

• Birthright Citizenship vs. The Alternative– The experiences of countries such as Germany,

France, Switzerland and Belgium show that restrictive citizenship regimes do not lead to emigration, but rather to deep social problems, lack of integration and decreased social mobility.

Total Fertility Rates – Europe and North America 1950-2000

____________________Source: United Nations

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

1950 - 55 1960 - 65 1970 - 75 1980 - 85 1990 - 95 2000 - 05 0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

North America

Europe

Source: Kohler, Billargi and Ortega. Calculated from United Nations medium projections.

Source: Kohler, Billargi and Ortega. Calculated from United Nations medium projections.

Source: Kohler, Billargi and Ortega. Calculated from United Nations medium projections.

Citizenship

• By Ascription– place of birth (jus soli) law of the earth– line of descent (jus sanguinis) law of the blood

• By Naturalization– As a right– At the discretion of the state

Citizenship in the U.S.

• By birth (even if parents are illegal, or here for a short period of time) (jus soli)

• By birth abroad if parents are citizens (jus sanguinis)

• By adoption• By naturalization if they comply with

conditions specified by law

U.S. Citizenship Rules

• 5 year residence• Oral and written English ability• Knowledge of US history and government• Good moral character• Oath of allegiance• No dual citizenship (ambiguous)

– Give up foreign allegiance

US does little to promote naturalization

• No notice is sent to immigrants or refugees to let them know when they are eligible.

• Very little public funding pays for language or civics classes.

• Long backlogs of people waiting for citizenship to come through.

Current European Immigration

• Southern and Eastern Europeans moving to Northern and Western Europe. Guest workers who became permanent.

• Immigrants from Former Colonies: Indians, Pakistanis, West Indians to Britain, Algerians and Moroccans to France, Surinamese to Netherlands.

Current European Immigration

• Countries of emigration have become countries of immigration– Italy, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Ireland

• Fall of Soviet Union opened up immigration from Eastern Europe to Western Europe

• Strong human rights orientation, asylum and refugees a large part of immigration flows.

Current European Immigration

• Former Communist Countries such as Poland, Romania

• Asylum Seekers, especially from Africa

Countries of Immigration?

• Germany: Until 1990’s: “We are not a country of immigration”. (Post war immigrants and their children are 10% of population).

• Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies– Advice to authors: “Avoid “immigrant” for non

migrant members of the second generation”

Laws on Citizenship Vary

• France and Britain have jus soli conditionally. (France: Ask at age 16-21). Extensive naturalization for ex colonials. Yet there remains much ambivalence about French citizenship for Algerians.

• Sweden and Netherlands have highest rates of naturalization. Allow voting in local elections.

• Germany, Austria, Switzerland most restrictive.

Birthright Citizenship

• Australia, Ireland, India, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Malta, and the Dominican Republic — have modified birthright citizenship in recent years.

US Birthright Citizenship

• Birthright Citizenship Act of 2009, to deny citizenship to children of the undocumented and other non citizens, introduced by Rep. Deal (R-Ga.), with 100 co-sponsors.

Switzerland

• 20% of the population is “foreign”• Immigrants must wait 12 years before

applying.• Local governments inspect home• Local cantons vote on candidates.• Even the third generation has no automatic

citizenship

Types of Immigrants in Europe• National migrants—those considered citizens

returnng “home” “– Saxons from Romania into Germany

• EU Citizens living in other EU countries. – 1993: 13 million foreign residents, 6 million were EU

members.• Ex-colonial peoples

– Indians, Pakistanis, West Indians in UK– North Africans, Southeast Asians in France– Eritreans and Somalis in Italy– Surinamese in Netherlands

Types of Immigrants in Europe

• Recruited workers from noncolonial countries (former Guest Workers)– Turks in Germany

• Refugees and Asylum Seekers• Accepted Illegal Workers

– Polish construction workers in Germany– African harvest workers in Italy

• Rejected illegal immigrants

BoundariesRichard Alba

• enacted social distinctions, i.e., distinctions that individuals make in their everyday lives and that shape their actions and mental orientations towards others; typically embedded in a variety of social and cultural differences;

• matter when linked to unequal life chances and status

Boundary constructioninstitutionalization of social distinctions, i.e.,

patterned manifestations of distinctions to social actors

importance of correlated social distinctions—here, distinctions that correspond with the immigrant-native one

role of social distance (e.g., segregation) and “objective” social and cultural differences

Key points

• boundaries are not the same everywhere• boundaries can change over time

– native groups may seek to make boundaries less porous

– boundaries may be weakened by structural changes, e.g., occupational shifts associated with demographic change

Boundaries: bright vs. blurred

• Bright boundary is unambiguous, blurred one may be ambiguous (for some individuals or in some contexts)

• Race vs. language (bilingualism)

Change Over Time

• Boundary crossing– Individual level assimilation – Passing

• Boundary blurring– Individuals location can be indeterminate

• Boundary shifting– Former outsiders become insiders– European immigrants in the US

Boundaries: bright vs. blurred

• Bright boundary:– assimilation less likely– assimilation requires boundary crossing, i.e., is

individualistic, less gradual, typically risky, does not allow “hyphenation”

Boundaries and the Second Generation

• France and Germany : religion is a bright boundary

• Germany: citizenship is a bright boundary• Individual boundary crossing?• US: Mexicans and race, blurred vs bright

boundary?

Race, Color and Culture

• In the US we ask how are new immigrants racialized? Anti-immigrants worry about the race composition, Brimelow, Alien Nation. “the end of the white race”

• How do new immigrants affect established racial minorities– Political Science: Hispanic ascendancy– Economics: Effects on Black labor market outcomes– Sociology: Segmented assimilation

Race, Color and Culture

• In Europe: Much less comfortable with the concept of race.– France: ethnicity not a statistical category– Britain: ‘Race’ in quotation marks– Germany: Blood, race, Nazi connotations

• In Europe: Immigrants tend to be stigmatized based on culture rather than color.

Race, Color and Culture

• Netherlands– Moroccans and Turks less accepted than

Surinamese of African ancestry but who share more Dutch culture.

– “Black schools” refer to schools with large numbers of Turks and Moroccans.

• If immigrants are seen as immutably different and inferior, is that cultural racism?

Race, Color and Culture

• Netherlands– Moroccans and Turks less accepted than

Surinamese of African ancestry but who share more Dutch culture.

– “Black schools” refer to schools with large numbers of Turks and Moroccans.

– North Africans in France and Turks in Germany are racially/religiously “othered”. Upward mobility blocked.

Types of Integration

• Germany– Exclusivist, Culture Based

• “Foreigners”

• France– Civic assimlationist

• “Immigrants”

• Netherlands, Great Britain– Multicultural Pluralist

• “Ethnic Minorities”

Netherlands• Muticulturalist Policy• 2002 Anti Immigrant LPF party wins 17.9% of vote

• 2004 murder filmaker Theo Van Gough• “It Goes No Further”• Secular vs religion• Culture Test—information about Dutch culture and

mores. Must accept “tolerance”

1990’s convergence

• Countries with restrictive/lineage based rules have widened access to citizenship: Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands.

• France—tighten laws. Assimilation, “becoming French” very important.

• “Head scarf” issue.

Islam in Europe

• Boundaries separating immigrants and natives.

• Long standing establishment of Christianity in Western Europe—support for religious schools, religious holidays, funding for churches as national symbols.

Muslims as Exception?

• After September 11th, worries about radical Islam.

• Is Islam somehow more “culturally different” than other religions?

• In Europe the dominant discourse is that Islam is seen as a barrier or a challenge to integration and a source of conflict with mainstream institutions.

Muslims in US• Will Religion become a fault line?• Best estimate 2.35 million Muslims in US (65%

foreign born, another 7% second generation)Most Arabs in US are Christians

• In the US most Muslims are educated and well off, while in Europe they tend to be disadvantaged.

• Evidence that since 9/11, people have begun to self identify as Muslim American.

• Still, most Muslims in the US do not see any conflict between being Muslim and American. (This is very different in Europe)

US vs. Europe

• Europe is much more secular.• In the US, immigrants become more religious.• It’s a bridge, not a boundary

Immigrants are more likely than non-immigrants to say one must believe in God to be part of American society…

Source: NPR/Kaiser/Kennedy School Immigration Survey (5/27-8/4/04)

Source: NPR/Kaiser/Kennedy School Immigration Survey (5/27-8/4/04)

…But immigrants themselves are no more religious than non-immigrants

French Assimilation

• Until the 1980’s French official policy was assimilation.

• 1980s on more of an integrationist policy—money to groups to preserve some aspects of culture.

• Recently return to assimilation

French Assimilation

• Since 2003, immigrants asked to sign an immigration contract upon arrival. They promise to undergo language training and instruction on values of French society.

• Get certificate upon completion of training which is necessary for 10 year residence permit. If not, get one year residence permit.

French Assimilation

• View retention of ethnic identity as an obstacle to integration and national solidarity.

• July 2003 appointed Commission to Investigate Secularism and the French Republic. 25 recommendations, but most attention to headscarf issue

French Foreign Born Population

• Algerians 13.4%• Moroccans 12.1%• Sub Saharan Africans 9.3%• Turks 4.1%• Southeast Asians also a growing group

No Ethnic Statistics in France

• Discrimination hard to document. Are there ghettoes? Systematic police harassment? Higher health problems? Educational disparities. No hyphenated identities

• Controversies over the place of Islam given the principle of laicite (French secularism)

• Riots in Fall 2005

The Second Generation

• Very little anti-discrimination laws• No affirmative action• ZEP zones—zones of priority in education,

areas showing high unemployment and high numbers of foreigners.

North Africans in France

• Early school departure• High problems with police• High unemployment• Residential segregation• Segmented assimilation?

Feb 10, 2004 Law

• Banned conspicuous religious symbols in public schools.

• Passed by vote 494 to 36 in National Assembly. Broad popular support.

• Is it anti-Islam or Pro Secularism?

Institutional Comparisons Current Research

• Can Europe handle religious diversity? Challenge of Islam to established Christianity or to established secularity?

• Citizenship and immigration. How do different regimes affect integration?

• Schools and Integration

Immigrant Integration PolicyConclusions

• Policies about income inequality, poverty, families and schools make a much greater difference in the lives of the first and second generation than do immigrant specific policies.