How long does assimilation take?

[Ellen Brown]

There were waves of Immigrants to America from Ireland, Scandinavia, China, Korea, and lots of other countries, and somehow we accommodated them. My 'people' came from Scotland and England. Hispanics seem to assimilate in a Generation or so. Arabs that are not Muslim seem to blend in almost right away. For some reason, Muslims seem to take longer, however when I was attending Mosques, one of the biggest complaints I heard from other Muslims is that their children did not continue with Hijab and attending Friday Prayer.

From what I have seen, lots of the immigrants in the latter part of the 19th century were Mormon converts, though I have no idea what percentage of the total it was.

At one Mosque, they thought I was undercover Police, and over all if you are white it was hard at any Mosque I attended.

I wonder what the average time for a culture to assimilate into American culture is?

I live near a College that has around 30,000 students, and at one time, I think that half were Arab. In fact, who ever monitors these things started diverting Arab students to other colleges. Since Trump erupted onto the populace I have no idea what the present numbers are.

 

[Spirit of Light]

Maybe it is wrong of the humans to look at each other as different just because we come from different countries or different part of the world? Maybe we instead should try to look at each other as what we all are, Human beings.
Does it really matter what religion or what part of the world we come from?
To me no it does not matter

 

[Jumi]

What is assimilation? If it's just about becoming a fluent member of society who understands the "hidden rules" of the mainstream culture. It helps if the language is as easy as English. Much harder if it's a language like Chinese or Finnish.

 

[BSM1]

Maybe it is wrong of the humans to look at each other as different just because we come from different countries or different part of the world? Maybe we instead should try to look at each other as what we all are, Human beings.
Does it really matter what religion or what part of the world we come from?
To me no it does not matter

Even if they forcefully try to make you join their particular cult?

 

[Spirit of Light]

Even if they forcefully try to make you join their particular cult?

Yes i do not see different in what a human being is but ofcourse i see difference in behavior

 

[BSM1]

There were waves of Immigrants to America from Ireland, Scandinavia, China, Korea, and lots of other countries, and somehow we accommodated them. My 'people' came from Scotland and England. Hispanics seem to assimilate in a Generation or so. Arabs that are not Muslim seem to blend in almost right away. For some reason, Muslims seem to take longer, however when I was attending Mosques, one of the biggest complaints I heard from other Muslims is that their children did not continue with Hijab and attending Friday Prayer.

From what I have seen, lots of the immigrants in the latter part of the 19th century were Mormon converts, though I have no idea what percentage of the total it was.

At one Mosque, they thought I was undercover Police, and over all if you are white it was hard at any Mosque I attended.

I wonder what the average time for a culture to assimilate into American culture is?

I live near a College that has around 30,000 students, and at one time, I think that half were Arab. In fact, who ever monitors these things started diverting Arab students to other colleges. Since Trump erupted onto the populace I have no idea what the present numbers are.

Think you got it bad, try being Amish...just sayin'.

 

[ChristineM]

What is assimilation? If it's just about becoming a fluent member of society who understands the "hidden rules" of the mainstream culture. It helps if the language is as easy as English. Much harder if it's a language like Chinese or Finnish.

When we moved to france we had culture lessons. Made a big difference to how we "assimilated"

 

[Stevicus]

There were waves of Immigrants to America from Ireland, Scandinavia, China, Korea, and lots of other countries, and somehow we accommodated them. My 'people' came from Scotland and England. Hispanics seem to assimilate in a Generation or so. Arabs that are not Muslim seem to blend in almost right away. For some reason, Muslims seem to take longer, however when I was attending Mosques, one of the biggest complaints I heard from other Muslims is that their children did not continue with Hijab and attending Friday Prayer.

From what I have seen, lots of the immigrants in the latter part of the 19th century were Mormon converts, though I have no idea what percentage of the total it was.

At one Mosque, they thought I was undercover Police, and over all if you are white it was hard at any Mosque I attended.

I wonder what the average time for a culture to assimilate into American culture is?

I live near a College that has around 30,000 students, and at one time, I think that half were Arab. In fact, who ever monitors these things started diverting Arab students to other colleges. Since Trump erupted onto the populace I have no idea what the present numbers are.

I think it depends. Some of my ancestors were of French ancestry and living in Louisiana when that territory became part of the United States. They still retained the language and culture for generations afterwards, and even my grandfather spoke French as a child. But they had been living in rural conditions with little interaction with other cultures. As a result, they didn't need to assimilate all that quickly.

Similarly, I had Dutch ancestors who settled in the upper Midwest, and they were also living in rural settings where they mostly interacted with their own people. There was no pressing need to assimilate, so it was a slow process - driven more by necessity than anything else.

Those who settled in urban areas or took industrial jobs requiring greater interaction with other ethnic groups were under stronger pressures to assimilate.

Henry Ford even set up a school for his immigrant employees to teach them how to acculturate to America. There was even a graduation ceremony in which they first lined up in clothing from their native homeland, but then would change over to American style clothing so that they would look like other Americans.

At that time, a lot of immigrants also changed their names to make them sound more American. A guy with a strange, foreign-sounding name like Charles Dennis Buchinsky became Charles Bronson, an all-American hero. My Cajun grandfather changed his first name from Pierre to William. Things like this were rather common.

There were also little to no extra accommodations for immigrants back in those days. There were no multilingual voting ballots, no bilingual education, no "press 2 for Spanish" - it was mostly just sink or swim.

 

[Vinayaka]

The ability to assimilate has many factors. Who hasn't heard that if you want to learn a language, best to go to where nobody speaks your language? So if someone emigrates to a foreign land, assimilation there will depend on how many have gone before you. If there is an established community of your ethnicity, it won't be as necessary to assimilate into the wider community. If not, then assimilation will occur more quickly.

It also depends on the individual. Outgoing people with full intent to drop their old culture can assimilate quickly. Shy people with no intent to assimilate will take longer, maybe even a couple of generations, for the family.

Personally, I don't see it as a comparison of cultures who do versus cultures who don't. It's individual. Some folks do, some folks don't. But since I am lover of diversity, I prefer individuals who keep some, if not a lot of their birth culture. That makes for a more diverse and interesting community.

 

[icehorse]

Maybe it is wrong of the humans to look at each other as different just because we come from different countries or different part of the world? Maybe we instead should try to look at each other as what we all are, Human beings.
Does it really matter what religion or what part of the world we come from?
To me no it does not matter

It seems strange to me that we'd somehow imagine that what a person believes should have no impact on how they assimilate into a new culture. Beliefs are powerful.

 

[Revoltingest]

It seems strange to me that we'd somehow imagine that what a person believes should have no impact on how they assimilate into a new culture. Beliefs are powerful.

Aye, Ameristan differs from many other countries in significant ways.
For example, we have uncommonly greater free speech. This poses
a problem to people who react violently to religious insult. For these
folk, they need to adopt a thicker skin, & greater tolerance of others.

 

[LuisDantas]

Maybe it is wrong of the humans to look at each other as different just because we come from different countries or different part of the world? Maybe we instead should try to look at each other as what we all are, Human beings.
Does it really matter what religion or what part of the world we come from?
To me no it does not matter

At an important level, sure, it should not matter.

All the same, there are obvious practical considerations to make about how confortably newcomers can navigate a new culture... and also, how willing they are to try.

Latino Hispanics are perhaps among the least chauvinistic of all people. While Brazilians are not quite Hispanics and perhaps not even Latinos, we nevertheless have a measure of understanding of our neighbors' culture. They, much like ourselves, might as well be internal refugees far as our established cultural roots go.

Others will have some degree more of previous cultural roots and be less willing to substitute them with new ones. That is still to some extent a significant problem here in Brazil, as the various generations of Japanese immigrants and their descendants can't reach much of a consensus on what and how much they want to keep of Japanese culture. Some families suffer a bit of internal estrangement for that reason.

At the most pragmatical, we must at the very least consider that language barriers can be very significant indeed, as can proper professional qualifications.

Humanistic considerations can only go so far if mutual understanding and gainful employment are not possible.

 

[Spirit of Light]

At an important level, sure, it should not matter.

All the same, there are obvious practical considerations to make about how confortably newcomers can navigate a new culture... and also, how willing they are to try.

Latino Hispanics are perhaps among the least chauvinistic of all people. Others will have some degree more of previous cultural roots and be less willing to substitute them with new ones. That is still to some extent a significant problem here in Brazil, as the various generations of Japanese immigrants and their descendants can't reach much of a consensus on what and how much they want to keep of Japanese culture. Some families suffer a bit of internal estrangement for that reason.

At the most pragmatical, we must at the very least consider that language barriers can be very significant indeed, as can proper professional qualifications.

Humanistic considerations can only go so far if mutual understanding and gainful employment are not possible.

Right here i live now, the neighbour downstairs are from burma/mayanmar the neighbour to the left is pakistani and the neighbour on the right is thai as a norwegian born citizen i have a lot of good talks with them because i like helping them with understand the culture and language here. I dont find the same joy with norwegian neighbours But that ofcourse is different too

 

[LuisDantas]

Right here i live now, the neighbour downstairs are from burma/mayanmar the neighbour to the left is pakistani and the neighbour on the right is thai as a norwegian born citizen i have a lot of good talks with them because i like helping them with understand the culture and language here. I dont find the same joy with norwegian neighbours But that ofcourse is different too

That is marvelous. I wish we all had such an opportunity.

It just happens that most places are too demographically overtaxed and socially unstructured to even want to make the attempt. Nationalism is still very much a reality, much as I dearly want it to be forever gone.

 

[Spirit of Light]

That is marvelous. I wish we all had such an opportunity.

It just happens that most places are too demographically overtaxed and socially unstructured to even want to make the attempt. Nationalism is still very much a reality, much as I dearly want it to be forever gone.

that i agree with you on

 

[Revoltingest]

I dont find the same joy with norwegian neighbours But that of course is different too

I know what you mean.
The stench of lutefisk is offputting.

 

[Spirit of Light]

I know what you mean.
The stench of lutefisk is offputting.

you made me laugh, I have never eaten lutefisk in my life, and yes it stinks
How do you know lutefisk?

 

[Revoltingest]

you made me laugh, I have never eaten lutefisk in my life, and yes it stinks
How do you know lutefisk?

I only know it thru the many jokes about it.
But I'd give it a try....unlike that horror from Sweden, Surstromming.

What's the best method to drive skunks out from under your porch?
Put lutefisk there.
Now, what's the best method to drive Norwegians out from under your porch?

 

[Spirit of Light]

I only know it thru the many jokes about it.
But I'd give it a try....unlike that horror from Sweden, Surstromming.

Hehe

 

[icehorse]

I only know it thru the many jokes about it.
But I'd give it a try....unlike that horror from Sweden, Surstromming.

What's the best method to drive skunks out from under your porch?
Put lutefisk there.
Now, what's the best method to drive Norwegians out from under your porch?

Those foods are for babies. Real men choke down fermented shark!