Segmented Assimilation Theory: Challenges and Vulnerabilities of the Second Generation Immigrants

Challenges faced by the second generation immigrants based on the Segmented Assimilation Theory

Answer one question below.

Q1. Barriers to successful adaptation, according to segmented assimilation theory, are three-fold: first, lingering racial prejudice because the majority of the new second generation is non-white; second, de-industrialization and the bifurcation of the American labor market into highly-paid professional occupations requiring advanced training and low-paid manual jobs; third, the proliferation of gangs and the drug trade that provide an alternative path to staying in school and completing an education (Portes and Zhou 1993). Choose one of these challenges (i.e., racism, labor market inequality, countercultures and deviant lifestyles) and explain why the new second generation (i.e., the children of immigrants coming to the US after 1965) is more vulnerable to these challenges, compared to the children of early European immigrants in the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. Your answer should be based on the discussion in Chapter 8 (Pp.271-280) and the supplementary reading (Pp.55-62), “Not Everyone Is Chosen.”

Q2. Based on the discussion in Chapter 8 and the supplementary readings placed in Pilot, identify at least three main arguments of segmented assimilation theory, which are quite distinct from classic assimilation theory and/or new assimilation theory (Alba and Nee 2003) discuss in Week 09.

Q3. Segmented assimilation theory suggests that downward assimilation occurs not because of the failure to Americanize, but because of doing it too quickly (i.e., dissonant acculturation). Children’s acculturation and abandonment of the home language and culture occur so far ahead of their parents’, creating generational gaps in acculturation. This This is the situation leading to role reversal. Based on a story on Pp.49-53 from the supplementary reading, “Not Everyone Is Chosen,” explain why such role reversal is a warning sign of possible downward assimilation.

Q4. Watch one of the following instructional videos available through the Dunbar Library, summarize the main themes, and write your reaction to the film. To watch the documentary: Go to the Dunbar Library website, Click “Catalog,” and Type the title of the film. “Hispanic Americans: The Second Generation” [WSU-Films on Demand; 44m] “Hosted by actor Jimmy Smits, this program examines how second-generation Hispanics are adapting to American society, and how they are maintaining their Latino roots while assimilating into the American cultural mainstream. A variety of famous and everyday Hispanic Americans are interviewed, including pop film director Richard Rodriquez. Hispanics from doctors and police officers to comedians, fashion designers, and rock stars discuss the continuing role of family, and the ongoing battles with ethnic stereotyping.” [Synopsis from the Film Website] “Being Myself: Bilingualism and Identity”

[WSU-Films on Demand; 22m] “In this program, three bilingual and bicultural women discuss their experience with language and identity, and the ways in which culture has influenced both. Eriko, who is Japanese but educated in the U.K., finds it easier to express herself in English than in her native tongue. Kazuho is also Japanese, but moved to the U.S. as a child before returning to Japan as a teen. She shares her perceptions about language as a reflection of Asian and American societal differences. And Janet, raised in Japan and Hawaii, is the daughter of a second-generation Japanese father and a mother who was born in Japan. "I'm American when they want me to be, and Japanese when they want me to be," she says.” [Synopsis from the Film Website]