Overview
The United States is among the countries with the highest number of immigrants in the world. Although the U.S. has often adopted a policy allowing people from other nations to live within it, the challenges facing these immigrants and their children have attracted attention from various scholars. Second-generation immigrants face significantly different situations compared to immigrant children. Focusing on the social and economic factors, immigrants are shown to suffer from identity crises, racial segregation, and unequal representation in many spheres.
Assimilation is a crucial factor that has attracted scholarly research. Using a case study of Chinese immigrant children within the U.S., Zhou (2014) aims to understand assimilation trends through the ethnic community. The author illustrates that Chinese immigrants’ offspring have gained ground in mainstream America via academic accomplishment (Zhou 2014). The results reveal that, in order to acquire middle-class status in the United States, immigrant parents have adopted the ethnic route to aid their children’s social mobility and have succeeded (Zhou 2014). Assimilated youngsters have relied on ancestry for empowerment in order to combat stereotypical portrayals of systemic racism. Tran and Valdez (2017) aim to understand the trends in socioeconomic conditions among migrant communities. In comparison to native minority groups, second-generation Mexicans and Puerto Ricans are found to be at a disadvantage, but many Latino groups have attained parity with their native majority peers.
Second-generation mobility patterns form a central part of research on immigrants’ living conditions. Zhou and Lee (2007) hope to debunk some myths regarding group-based civilizations, stereotypes, and assimilation techniques in the process. First, they go over the existing research on immigrant integration, focusing on the new second generation’s mobility patterns. Second, they critically examine existing assumptions regarding success and assimilation definitions and paths. Third, they look at the new second generation’s identity decisions, concentrating on how individuals choose to distinguish themselves and the factors that underpin their decisions (Zhou and Lee 2007). Their research results indicate that immigrants have sought assimilation by developing new identities away from racial dimensions. Jiménez and Horowitz (2013) add to the inquiry into achievement by evaluating how educational achievement and ethnoraciality have impacted immigrants within the U.S. Their results show that whites have set the academic achievement benchmark to which all other groups subscribe.
Trajectories of Immigrants
Identity is one of the key factors determining people’s positions in society. While evaluating the living conditions of Asian Americans, Zhou and Lee (2007) realize that other Americans regularly identify them as panethnically Asian and perceive them as foreign-born. This situation makes it increasingly difficult for Asian American youth to maintain a unique ethnic identity, let alone an American one. As the offspring of the post-1965 immigration wave reach adulthood in the twenty-first century, they are leaving permanent marks in American communities. However, success has been defined differently in American culture, forcing immigrants to carve their own paths.
Confined within a society that does not fully accommodate them nor permit them to fully express their ethnic identities, immigrant communities in America have faced challenges in their socioeconomic pursuits. According to Zhou and Lee (2007), adult offspring of immigrants are taking various paths in their pursuit of success. In regard to personal identity and success, study results indicate that immigrant children and second-generation Asian Americans are following directions to mobility that are just as diverse as native-born Americans (Zhou 2014). The primary motivation for this shift has been the need to express oneself fully, a journey that has not been easy for immigrant communities in the U.S.
Family and relationships are social concepts that determine a community’s prosperity. Close familial, clan, and friendship ties, as well as the support and monitoring mechanisms that go with them, have been disturbed (Zhou 2014). Individuals migrating from the same regions relocated in a common ethnic enclave might readily rebuild broken networks in the past. Chinese immigrants nowadays come from all parts of the world. Instead of being relocated to segregated communities, many are resettling in a variety of urban areas, ethnoburbs, and white middle-class neighborhoods. New immigrants become estranged from their current ethnic communities due to this geographic dispersion (Zhou 2014). Notably, these challenges have facilitated alternative means of survival, benefiting the hosts and incomers.
Residential dispersion, while ostensibly aiding integration, makes it increasingly challenging for families to rebuild social connections based on ancestry and cultural history, as well as to impose the immigrant family’s beliefs, norms, and accepted practices. Parents and their children establish ‘parallel dual frames of reference,’ in which parents compare their children’s behavior to that of Chinese children while children do the same by likening their families to those of their American friends. In essence, Zhou and Lee (2007) note that the stereotype of a typical American parent displayed in the media is clearly established through the experiences of Chinese immigrants’ families.
The socioeconomic dimension entails developing more profound insights into the place of assimilation among immigrant communities and how such effects alter their financial abilities. The adaptive process has jeopardized parental authority. Immigrant limitations, including limited cultural empowerment in the United States, English language fluency, schooling, and employment skills, lead to transitions in gender roles and the distortion of parent-child responsibilities (Zhou 2014). On the downside, role interchange has caused immigrant children to miss out on crucial opportunities for growth and empowerment.
Many Chinese American children have assumed essential adult roles such as translation services, and intermediaries, connecting their families to the outside world (Zhou and Lee 2007). This is especially the case in homes where the adults have low educational backgrounds and understand minimal English, rendering them highly dependent on their children. Effective parenting is substantially hampered by such role reversal, particularly parental capacity to provide instrumental support and guidance. The distinctive cultural approach to schooling, which is often at the heart of head-on conflicts based on education among different generations within the Chinese American family, adds to these difficulties.
Systemic racism is cited as the primary contributing factor to the trajectories identified above. The term “otherness” has been applied by Jiménez and Horowitz (2013) to imply the unfair treatment that non-whites in America are forced to endure as they ate considered not citizens of America. The failure of the American community to embrace other individuals without passing judgment on their ancestry is a potential factor cited for the increase in racial discrimination. Economic disparities have also been shown to significantly affect how minority children access quality education and their chances of engaging in the American business sector (Tran and Valdez 2017). Therefore the factors leading to the immigrant trajectories highlighted herein are the immigrants’ poor financial background, the lack of a supportive system, and systemic racism that has remained in the country for years.
Assimilation has been studied by various authors, revealing significant gaps in socioeconomic integration among immigrants. Tran and Valdez (2017), and Jiménez and Horowitz (2013), assessed assimilation among Asians and Mexicans, finding education to be a key determinant. Although parents are willing to educate their children within the U.S. education sector, their involvement is inhibited by the systemic racism that has continued to cripple social development. The authors reveal that those who have access to education have assimilated into the American culture. Tran and Valdez (2017) indicate that migrants have experienced different levels of resistance based on their ethnic backgrounds. For instance, Latinos are shown to have integrated into the system more than Asians. In the pursuit of assimilation, Zhou and Lee (2007) report that many Asian Americans have followed different paths, redefining academic achievement and the requirements for success within a racially-segregated community. In summary, assimilation differs by the ethnic background and the extent to which individuals are willing to adopt American identities.
Expectations for Second and Future Generations
Navigating the socioeconomic disparities within their host country sets up second-generation children and future generations for success, albeit through struggle and compromise. Many second-generation children spend time interpreting documents, answering phones on their parents’ behalf, researching pertinent information, and generally assisting when needed (Tran and Valdez 2017). While native-born children could do the same for their native-born parents, immigrant children typically start young, pushing them to grow up faster. It also highlights the difficulties of negotiating two cultures and situations that are potentially highly different, especially at a young age. As opposed to the first generation, these individuals are more exposed to technological solutions and opportunities for innovation that the former group missed. Therefore, it is expected that these latter groups will navigate the social structures more easily, setting them up for economic growth and development.
The mindsets of second-generation children have developed significantly due to the exposure to tough times and access to more resources than the previous group. As shown by Zhou (2014), these generations have started developing identities that allow them to express their abilities amid racial segregation. Since the society may not change its view of minority groups, second and future generations of immigrants have to develop alternative means of survival. Redefining academic excellence and economic sustainability are among the traits evident in these latter groups that will catapult them to greatness in all dimensions.
Assimilation among the current and future generations is expected to change significantly. Although education has been cited as the core element through which immigrant children have socially integrated into American society, technology and innovation are expected to be more crucial in the future. Since most second-generation children are often involved with technology as they guide their parents, they are more likely to develop innovative skills. With increased interaction with their white friends within and outside school, immigrant children are more likely to be integrated into other non-economic dimensions. As shown by Tran and Valdez (2017), some ethnic communities have assimilated into the system more than others due to socio-cultural variations. Similarly, although future generations will be more integrated into socioeconomic dimensions, there will be varying rates due to different perceptions and cultural norms. However, there is cause for optimism, considering that the resistance faced by previous generations may reduce as communities interact at various levels.
References
Jiménez, Tomás R., & Horowitz, Adam. 2013. “When White Is Just Alright: How Immigrants Redefine Achievement and Reconfigure The Ethnoracial Hierarchy.” American Sociological Review 78 (5): 849-871. doi:10.1177/0003122413497012.
Tran, Van & Valdez, Nicol. 2017. “Second-Generation Decline or Advantage? Latino Assimilation in the Aftermath of the Great Recession”. International Migration Review 51(1): 155-190. doi: 10.1111/imre.12192.
Zhou Min. 2014. “Segmented Assimilation and Socio-Economic Integration of Chinese Immigrant Children in the USA.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 37(7): 1172-1183. doi: 10.1080/01419870.2014.874566.
Zhou, Min & Lee, Jennifer. 2007. “Becoming Ethnic or Becoming American?: Reflecting on the Divergent Pathways to Social Mobility and Assimilation among the New Second Generation”. Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race 4 (1): 189–205. doi: 10.1017/S1742058X07070105.