Assimilation to American Society Theories and Realities

Assimilation/Americanization = Social Mobility 1st generation (immigrant generation) arrives without wealth, education, or fluency in English: works hard as an entrepreneur or in manual labor 2nd generation (children of immigrants): fluent in English, finish school in U.S., achieve middle-class status 3rd generation (grandchildren of immigrants): go to college, successful professionals Note the significance of schooling to this story Children at Ellis Island, 1908

What does it mean to become American? Assumptions that Americans share the same experiences (or perhaps Americanization = being white and middle class) But the U.S. is an unequal society (by race, social class, and gender) To which America are immigrants assimilating to?

Neighborhoods as spatializing inequality and distributing inequality Provide and determine: education recreational facilities insurance rates employment transportation safety health

Ethnicity of Public School-age Population (2011-2012) Whites 51.5% Blacks 15.4% Latinos 24.3% Asian-Americans 5.1% Native Americans 1.1%

Racial Composition of School Attended by Average: (2011-2012) Orfield et al, 2014, p. 12 Percentage race in each School White Black Latino Asian % White 72.5 27.6 25.1 38.9 % Black 8.3 48.8 10.9 10.7 % Latino 11.8 17.1 56.8 22.1 % Asian 3.9 3.6 4.7 24.5 % N. Am. and Multiracial 3.5 2.9 2.5 3.8

Table 10

These disparities are clustered according to social class and race These disparities are clustered according to social class and race. While these are distinct processes, there is also some relationship between them.

*Federal poverty threshold = $19,350 for family of four in 2005 18% of children live in poverty* but they tend to live in areas and go to schools where poor children are in the majority. *Federal poverty threshold = $19,350 for family of four in 2005 National Center for Children in Poverty, Columbia University, “Low-Income Children in the United States,” January 2006.

Orfield et al, Table 7, p. 16

Relationship between Concentrated Poverty & School Achievement Loss of successful role models: Adults that a child sees are unemployed or working low-paying jobs Loss of access to networks to get jobs Loss of resources to support high-quality schools Schools with many poor children need even more services (language training, special education, social work and counseling) but generally are more poorly funded than schools serving middle-class students What do we see in these schools attended by the children of West Indian immigrants?

Concept of Segmented Assimilation Some immigrants assimilating to professional or wealthy class; others to the working poor or underclass Race as well as previous education plays a role into which class one assimilates into in the United States For your second paper: What is happening for your immigrant group?