Customer Reviews

Remaking the American Mainstream: Assimilation and Contemporary Immigration

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This intelligently-written book contains a nuanced discussion of immigrant incorporation in the United States. It updates and clarifies "assimilation" theory, and describes how it can be applied to understanding how immigrants become part of American society. I recommend it to anyone interested in a thoughtful discussion of these issues.

I recommend this book for anyone interested in a contemporary reformulation and revamping of assimilation theory. Alba and Nee do credible justice to the idea that America continues to be a Nation best characterized as a nation of immigrants and where assimilation into the mainstream is still, by and large, possible.

However, the book minimizes the significance of factors related to transnationalism, racialization, and the dominant, emerging, and overarching impact of panethnicity in contemporary American society. Fundamentally, the discussion boils to this: does race continue to define and delineate American society and opportunity? Alba and Nee believe that while it has some impact, it is still residual. As a scholar coming from an alternative orientation, I disagree, and in a forthcoming book, my team of researchers will describe an alternative perspective that emphasizes the salience of race which we believe is more rooted in American experience.