Remaking the American Mainstream: Assimilation and Contemporary Immigration
Remaking the American Mainstream: Assimilation and Contemporary Immigration
复制标题
DOI：
10.5860/choice.41-3746
复制
发表时间：
2003
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
R. Alba;V. Nee
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
R. Alba;V. Nee
在这个多元文化民主的时代，同化的概念——即移民及其子女与美国主流社会之间的社会距离随着时间的推移而缩小——似乎已经过时，在某些方面甚至是令人反感的。但是，正如理查德·阿尔巴（Richard Alba）和维克多·尼（Victor Nee）在他们对同化的系统论述中所表明的那样，尽管移民的地理位置已经从欧洲转移到亚洲、非洲和拉丁美洲，但同化仍在继续塑造着移民的经历。从民权立法到移民法的制度变革，为非白人移民及其子女提供了比过去更有利的环境。据称，同化仍然是由移民和第二代移民为了改善他们在美国的社会和物质环境而做出的决定所驱动的。但它们也表明，移民在历史上和当代世界，在成为美国人的过程中，深刻地改变了美国社会和文化。Alba和Nee调查了语言、社会经济关系、居住模式和异族婚姻等多个领域，证明了同化在美国生活中的持续重要性。他们预测，随着非白人和西班牙裔越来越多地融入主流，这将模糊主要种族群体之间的界限。
In this age of multicultural democracy, the idea of assimilation - that the social distance separating immigrants and their children from the mainstream of American society closes over time - seems outdated and, in some forms, even offensive. But, as Richard Alba and Victor Nee show in their systematic treatment of assimilation, it continues to shape the immigrant experience, even though the geography of immigration has shifted from Europe to Asia, Africa and Latin America. Institutional changes, from civil rights legislation to immigration law, have provided a more favourable environment for non-white immigrants and their children than in the past. Assimilation is still driven, in claim, by the decisions of immigrants and the second generation to improve their social and material circumstances in America. But they also show that immigrants, historically and in the contemporary world, have profoundly changed American society and culture in the process of becoming Americans. Surveying a variety of domains - language, socio-economic attachments, residential patterns and inter-marriage - Alba and Nee demonstrate the continuing importance of assimilation in American life. They predict that it will blur the boundaries among the major, racially defined populations, as non-whites and Hispanics are increasingly incorporated into the mainstream.