How immigrants assimilate

countries & regions — By Bob Riel on July 7, 2006 at 12:29 pm

There has been much talk in recent months about the growing Hispanic population in the United States and its effect on the country. One of the fears articulated is that we could be creating a separate Spanish culture in the U.S. However, a recent story in the Washington Post indicates that some of those fears may be unfounded, as the majority of immigrants do in fact assimilate fairly well.

Beneath the surface of the immigration debate is a debate about shared values. If we look at just three of those values — the English language, family and hard work — we see a higher level of Latino assimilation than is often presumed. Despite claims to the contrary, census data show that most Latino immigrants learn and speak English quite well. …

Of course, assimilation is not instantaneous. First-generation immigrants often hold on to the language and customs of the old country. Some immigrants ghettoize themselves and avoid the mainstream. But the overall patterns are far more positive than many recent debates have suggested.

For some interesting perspective on how past immigrant groups have assimilated, check out this article from Woonsocket, Rhode Island (my hometown, actually), which had a French-speaking population for most of the first half of the 20th century that wasn’t always interested in assimilating. Today, however, that is all a distant memory, as ensuing generations inevitably became more a part of the predominant culture.

The story quotes Raymond Bacon, who grew up in the French-Canadian community and is now co-manager of the city’s Museum of Work & Culture.

While there are a reported 158 countries in the world whose constitutions stipulate one or more national languages, Bacon said that in The United States “I don’t think there is a need.”

Asked about the increasing dominance of Spanish, used in many places and areas of the culture as almost a co-language, he said, “I think we need to be patient … reconciling the values of the old culture with the new one.

“… Woonsocket could have made the case, if you keep this up – the French spoken all over the city – it could become French. But it didn’t happen.”