1. Assimilation to American Society
Theories and Realities

2. 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

3. 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?

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

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

6. 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

8. Table 10

9. 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.

10. *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.

11. Orfield et al, Table 7, p. 16

12. 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?

13. 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?