Which Factors may Encourage an Individual to Assimilate to a New Society - Essay Example

Assimilation can be difficult and it can be successful yet detrimental to the individual at the same time. According to the dictionary "assimilation" is "The process whereby a minority group gradually adopts the customs and attitudes of the prevailing culture." (American Heritage Dictionary). For many immigrants this is expected of them and they automatically attempt to do it, especially in the United States. There are man factors that go into assimilation that cannot be anticipated by the individual coming into the new culture.

According to Le (2008) there are two basic theories that categorize how assimilation is going to happen. The primordial or essentialist theory says that people have a sense of ethnic identity that is fixed and it is a part of who they are and it cannot be changed. They say that most people have an instinct that tells them to take care of their kin and or co-kin and leave those who are not kin out of their assistance. (par. 3). Situational theory (also known as constructionist theory) suggests that people are always adapting to their environment and that ethnic identity is more fluid.

Instead of being fixed they are more socially defined. They believe that ethnic identity is constantly changing and in their words "being renegotiated, revised, and redefined, depending on specific situations and set of circumstances that each individual or ethnic group encounters" (Le, par. 4). The situational theorists also suggest sub theories that work within the framework of ethnicity. Some sociologists suggest that people can ignore their ethnic identity depending on the circumstances they are in and after a specific event have a resurgence of that particular identity.

This happened after World War II when many Japanese Americans tried to assimilate into the American culture and let go of their Japanese culture because of their imprisonment inside the internment camps. In 1980 many people protested this treatment and Japanese