Gender Difference in Certain Aspects of Cultural Assimilation - Literature review Example

Gender Difference in certain aspects of cultural assimilation As the development of and communication between countries increase rapidly, cultural diversity has become a trend spreading in entire America, especially in the U.S, the country in which diverse culture aggregated together forming a large melting culture pot. The U.S has long been attractive for immigrants and Hispanic American is one of many ethnic groups that currently located in the U.S. In fact, currently, Hispanic Americans have been the largest minority group in the U.S since 2003. The growth of Hispanic Americans is expected to increase in the future mainly because of their community’s tendency towards bigger families and the continued immigration of Hispanics into the country. The assimilation of Hispanics into the American culture has been going on for several generations as seen from the fact that approximately 62% of Latinos living in the U.S are citizens by birth having lived in the country for generations. These individuals do not have any strong ties to another country other than the U.S. This coupled with other causes of assimilation such as marriage, naming, education attainment, homeownership, income, acquisition of the English language, political engagement, among others. With the presence of newcomers, there must be the presence of communication between local and foreign cultures and one channel of communication is the so-called cultural assimilation. While some would argue that cultural assimilation is a destined result and everyone experiencing cultural assimilation will finally be assimilated into the new culture, in a similar approach, I claim that cultural assimilation is not a definite process and people with distinct gender will respond to such cultural assimilation in a different way. As the subject of the study, Hispanic American’s population is now about to take up one quarter of the total population in the U.S and the study of cultural assimilation process of Hispanic American people is meaningful in that it enables new immigrants to be capable of anticipating what their future life would be like and it also ensures people outside the culture background become familiar with the new culture. In the research paper, I will explore the gender difference on certain aspects during the process of cultural assimilation such as assimilation choices, change of inclination toward a certain behavior, as well as the formation of ethnic enclaves. First of all, as mentioned by Emily Greenman in his article “Assimilation choices among Immigrants families: Does School Context Matter", Greenman claims that when facing cultural assimilation, people often have a choice to decide whether to or not to assimilate or partially assimilate. The decision of choice is dependent on the social context where the immigrants are living in. To illustrate, a better social context indicates a higher possibility of assimilation since in a better social context, it's easier for immigrants to find resources that are helpful for their economic and educational development thus making them open to the new culture. For example, immigrant parents would send their children to local school if that school is of good reputation and quality. However, if they don’t have the ability to send their children to a qualified school, they would then focus more on home education which is a sign of insufficient assimilation. Indeed, Hispanic American children have comparatively more obstacles when trying to receive education than Anglo American as bolstered by viewpoints given by Garcia Eugene E and Baruth Leroy G. They both claim that Hispanic American children often face the problem of non-bilingual teaching as well as cultural discrepancy between home and school which impede them from understanding the concepts and norms involved in the new culture. Hence, people select their way of assimilation as they seek better living condition in the new environment. However, under so many choices for assimilation, people do respond to the assimilation differently according to their gender. As mentioned by Zhenchao Qian in his article that amount of intermarriage between Hispanics and Anglos is now increasing in an accelerating rate due to cultural assimilation. Intermarriage is surely the pathway to assimilation since intermarriage is the fastest way to have a sense of details of daily life in the new society. An interesting finding in his study is that male Hispanics are more inclined to marry women from their original homeland, while the other hand, female Hispanics are more inclined to marry local Anglo American. This resonates with points of view claimed by Cristina. A Sue that females are usually more passionate with new culture thus females are more open to a new culture than male people who are more rooted in their homeland culture. Indeed, statistics gained in survey recording marriage information about Hispanic immigrants have reflected such a relation between gender difference and the mate they choose. Therefore, gender difference does affect the marriage of immigrants during their process of cultural assimilation. Moreover, the influence of gender assimilation continues after people's marriage. Gender difference shows its strength in affecting people's choice of naming their offspring. For numerous immigrant families and their families, the choice of a name involves making a decision on whether a child’s name should be ethnic or reflect their ethnic origin rather than giving the selecting standard American name. However, this does not mean that there are two distinct and separate English or foreign names. This is because it is possible for parents to choose an ethnic-neutral name that does not involve the two different categories, either English or foreign. On the other side, choosing an ethnic-specific name includes incidents when a parent chooses the ethnic translation of names that overlap. An example of choosing an ethnic name is when a Hispanic –American parent decides to name their child Juan instead of John. Cristina A Sue and Edward E Telles have mentioned in their article” Assimilation and Gender in Naming" that while female Hispanics are more inclined to name their offspring in English, male Hispanics, on the other hand, prefer to name their children in their homeland language. This is reasonable in that an English name would guarantee their children the acceptance of the new society thus gaining the chance of a brighter future and homeland language name is a conservation of their homeland culture. As a result, names of many Hispanics are translatable between Mexican and English as a compromise of such gender difference in naming. Therefore, gender difference does affect the behavior of immigrants during cultural assimilation. What’s more, gender difference appears also in the formation of “ethnic enclaves". The so-called "ethnic enclave" is centralized residential community almost insulating from the outside world. Such enclave is attractive for many newcomers because of the similarity in culture in the enclave as well as low-requirements for living in this area. As claimed by Frey William H, such enclaves are often the first destination of new-coming immigrants. However, the formation of such an enclave is not necessarily a good phenomenon. While it gathered a bunch of people with the same cultural background together, it also interrupts the communication between the insider and outsider of this enclave. As mentioned above, people have the choice to decide the extent of their exposure to new culture and such enclave is the best residence for those who choose not to assimilate to the new culture since the enclave ensure the comfortability of daily life within this area without the communication with the outside world which is the new society. The formation of ethnic enclaves is often accompanied by requirements for jobs especially for low-skilled jobs and gender difference appear in the employment structure within these enclaves. Male Hispanics within enclaves are usually more employed with low-skilled jobs such as waiter and security guard, on the other hand, female Hispanics within enclaves usually have domestic jobs such as babysitting or cleaning. Therefore, gender difference does have an effect on job selection within an ethnic enclave. Thus, as surveys have reported, Hispanic men experience moderate wage assimilation, while evidence shows that women have mixed assimilation wage assimilation. The mixed results for the women can be owed to the fact that in the past, fewer women immigrated into the U.S by themselves with the intention of seeing meaningful employment when compared to men. However, with time, an increased number of women have started to immigrate to the U.S by themselves with the intention of seeking employment which has increased their absorption into the domestic jobs in the country as indicated earlier in the text. Another factor that shows the difference in the assimilation of Hispanic Americans in terms of gender is educational attainment. When it comes to educational attainment, women tend to become more assimilated once they obtain high-level education when compared to Hispanic men. Studies have found that Hispanic women have a tendency to adopt the culture and lifestyle practices of white Americans once they obtain higher level education. They tend to get married to individuals of other ethnic communities and change their traditional Hispanic culture as they adopt the more American way of life. On the other hand, educated Hispanic men undergo a lesser degree of assimilation as it is found that even those who are highly educated are more likely to stick to their Hispanic roots when compared to their female counterparts, They are more likely to get married to their fellow Hispanics, use Hispanic names when naming their children, and other practices that indicate a lesser degree of assimilation. In trims of health assimilation, there are limited research studies that focus on health when it comes to investigating assimilation of adult Hispanic Americans. However, some studies have indicated a relationship between acculturation and smoking and alcohol use among Hispanic adolescents. This relationship is more pronounced among female Hispanic adolescents than their male counterparts. This means that in terms of health and health issues, female Hispanic adolescents are more likely to be assimilated into the ways of American teenagers. However, it is essential to mention that such behaviors such as smoking and alcohol consumption are minimized by the factors that are relevant to adolescent life stages. To sum up, though immigrants experience cultural assimilation in similar ways, male and female Hispanics respond to such cultural assimilation in different ways depending on their gender. Works Cited [1] Shaull, Sandra L., & James H. Gramann. “The Effect of Cultural Assimilation on the Importance of Family-Related and Nature-Related Recreation among Hispanic Americans.” Journal of Leisure Research, vol. 30, no.1, pp. 47-63, 1998. [2] Christina A. Sue, Edward E. Telles “Assimilation and Gender in Naming” American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 112, No. 5 (March 2007), pp. 1383-1415 [3] Zhenchao, Qian et al. “Divergent Pathways to Assimilation? Local Marriage Markets and Intermarriage Among U.S. Hispanics.” Journal of Marriage and Family, vol. 80, issue.1, pp. 271-288, 2017. [4] James Chaney, “The formation of a Hispanic Enclave in Nashville, Tennessee.” Southeastern Geographer, Vol. 50, No. 1 (Spring 2010), pp. 17-38 [5]Emily Greenman, "Assimilation choices among Immigrants families: Does School Context Matter" International Migration Review, Vol. 45, No. 1 (Spring 2011), pp. 29-67 [6]Eugene E. Garcia, “ ’Hispanic’ Children: Theoretical, Empirical, and Related Policy Issues” Educational Psychology Review, Vol. 4, No. 1 (March 1992), pp. 69-93 [7] Baruth, Leroy G., and M. Lee Manning. “Understanding and Counseling Hispanic American Children.” Elementary School Guidance & Counseling, vol. 27, no. 2, 1992, pp. 113–122.  [8] FREY, WILLIAM H. “Hispanics Fan Out: Who Goes Where?” Diversity Explosion: How New Racial Demographics Are Remaking America, Brookings Institution Press, Washington, D.C., 2018, pp. 65–86. Read More