Assimilation, American Style [Hardcover]

Peter D. Salins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2, 1997

The past few years have witnessed an intensification of anti-immigration sentiment in America. In 1994 came the passage of California's Proposition 187, which cut off state benefits to illegal immigrants. The following year saw heated debates in Congress over limiting the number of people allowed entry into the United States. And in the summer of 1996, President Clinton signed a welfare reform bill that for the first time restricted the rights of legal immigrants as well as undocumented aliens. At the same time, many prominent public figures took the position that immigrants are undermining the social fabric of our country, bringing with them strange customs and foreign ways that will destroy the essential nature of the United States. There was even talk of amending the Constitution to deny automatic citizenship to native-born children of immigrants. Where once America opened its golden door, that door now seems to be closing.Lost in the midst of the acrimony is what actually happens to immigrants once they arrive and settle here, a story that is told in Assimilation, American Style. Peter D. Salins, himself a child of immigrants and a leading scholar of urban affairs, makes a powerful case that, at a time when the immigrant population of the United States is growing larger and more diverse, the nation must rededicate itself to its historic mission of assimilating immigrants of all ethnic backgrounds. Reviewing the history of assimilation, he reveals how successive immigrant populations have become Americanized, despite being considered "alien" in their time-notably, the Germans, Irish, Italians, and Jews-and how assimilation continues to work among Hispanics and Asians today. America's vitality as a nation, Salins argues, depends on its being as successful in assimilating its newest immigrants as it was in integrating earlier immigrant groups.Salins advances our understanding of assimilation in two important ways. He convincingly shows how America's unique social compact of assimilation has permitted immigrants and their descendants to hold on to their ethnic traditions even as they acquired an American identity. He also documents the dire ramifications of our retreat from the ideal of assimilation in recent decades, countering the multiculturalists who ask ethnic Americans to reject assimilation in favor of ethnic separatism, and the nativists who reject further immigration altogether. It is America's unique paradigm of assimilation, Salins argues, that has enabled it to maintain national unity alongside unparalleled ethnic diversity and has kept it from experiencing the ethnic discord found in places like Canada, Germany, and France-let alone the ethnic warfare of Bosnia or Rwanda. Unless America revives its commitment to assimilation, he concludes, it risks undermining the foundations of its prosperity, social cohesion, and national civic culture.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

As the debate over immigration levels rages, Peter D. Salins examines how new arrivals integrate themselves into American culture and assesses their combined impact on the society. In Assimilation, American Style, Salins maintains that the naturalization process is the best means for absorbing the nearly one million individuals who come to America each year, placing him midway between the multiculturalists and the restrictionists. He does not believe or expect that all citizens will be alike, but cites certain cultural norms that allow all citizens at least a common understanding of the American experience that will assist in a successful integration into society. As he points out, the real difficulty lies in preventing the continued flood of illegal immigrants from rendering assimilation nearly impossible.

From Publishers Weekly

In this provocative and sure-to-be controversial defense of assimilation, Salins, professor of urban affairs and planning at Hunter College in Manhattan, argues strongly for the restoration of earlier policies toward new immigrants. He provides an overview of how, historically, immigrants assimilated by embracing the Protestant work ethic when they accepted low-paying jobs with long hours. They also sent their children to public schools, where they were taught exclusively in English and inculcated with the ethos that the U.S. is a nation created by people from many countries determined to make a new beginning. A strong supporter of intermarriage, Salins believes that bilingual education and multicultural programs are divisive and a threat to national unity. While the author's point that the U.S. has been largely spared bloody ethnic conflicts is well taken, his proposal that, to succeed, African American males need only imitate new immigrants by adopting their work ethic is simplistic.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; 1st edition (January 2, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465098177
• ISBN-13: 978-0465098170
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #864,541 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Rational and Compassionate Discussion of Immigration, October 31, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Assimilation, American Style (Hardcover)

Are you uncomfortable hearing American nativists like Pat Buchanan claim that an invasion of immigrants imperils our country and civilization? Are you disturbed by the alternatives offered by multiculturalism: endless affirmative action, ethnic identification, bi-lingual education through high school, minority dorms and minority studies in college? If so, read this book by Peter Salins and learn how ethnic and cultural diversity can co-exist with American national unity.

Don't be turned off by the title. With the advent of civil rights and multiculturalism, the term "assimilation" has begun to imply a forced loss of ethnic identity and cultural heritage. Peter Salins paints a different view of history of immigration and assimilation in America: "From colonial times to present, millions of assimilated Americans from other lands have lived in their own ethnic enclaves, eaten ethnic foods, and even spoken their original languages." Such ethnic communities did not represent a failure to assimilate; instead they assisted immigrants in dealing with a new country. Some ethnic communities (such as the Amish) have lasted more than a century because they still meet needs of their members.

Salins believes that assimilation in America was characterized by three simple precepts: accepting English as the national language, taking pride in American principles and identity, and living by a "Protestant" [work] ethic (self-reliant, hardworking and morally upright). Immigrants themselves didn't always learn English or identify with American principles, but their children usually did. This unforced assimilation over several generations was fundamental to America's success as a nation of immigrants. In return, immigrants were offered full citizenship after five years (a unique opportunity in a world where citizenship is usually defined by race or ethnicity) and unprecedented, but not equal, opportunity to advance economically and socially. Salins acknowledges that opportunity in capitalist America resulted in great inequalities in income and status and included the "opportunity to fail", but those who immigrated cared most about the opportunity to succeed.

It was uncomfortable to wait until the last quarter of the book to find a discussion of the failure of many blacks to assimilate. This failure, properly attributed to slavery and then a century of institutionalized racial discrimination, is condemned by Salins as our "nation's historic moral and political wrong". Salins believes that the path to black assimilation was opened by the civil rights legislation and that leaders such as Martin Luther King favored assimilation. However, many African Americans have turned away from assimilation because of increasing ethnic separation, emerging disdain for the Protestant work ethic and growing cynicism about racial justice in America.

Despite the fact that some blacks and Hispanics are turning towards ethnic separation, the author continues to believe that continued immigration is good for America. His statistics show that current immigration of about 700,000 per year is only about half of the immigration rate (immigrants/US population) experienced from 1840 to1900. Statistics also show that the five largest "gateway cities" with 20-35% foreign born have substantial higher median income and substantially lower welfare rates than the five large with the lowest percentage of foreign-born (2-5%).

Salins condemns those who view America as a federation of ethnic groups. Ethnic federations have failed disastrously in Yugoslavia, Russia, Czechoslovakia, Lebanon, Indonesia and Rwanda. Separatist movements exist in Canada, Great Britain, Belgium, Turkey and many other countries. Salins feels that America must view itself as a nation of individuals who choose for themselves how they wish to be defined and which cultural traditions they wish to follow.

The author was raised by immigrant parents who didn't speak English at home. He is currently a professor of urban affairs and planning at the City University of New York and he has included several hundred references to primary sources to substantiate his reasoning. Despite this scholarly approach, the material is clearly presented and could be understood by an interested high school student.