Cultural assimilation: Encyclopedia - Cultural assimilation

Cultural assimilation

Cultural Assimilation, or assimilation (also had other meanings) for short, is an intense process of conistent integration whereby memebers of an ethno-cultural grioup, typically immigrants, or other minority groups, are "absorbed" into an established, generally larger community. This presumes a loss of all characteristics which make the newcomers different. A region where assimilation is occurring is sometimes referred to as a "melting pot".

Assimilation can be voluntary, which is usually the case with immigrants, or forced upon a group, as is usually the case with the receiving "host" group. Immigration, as held by some, is often thought to be in the interest of the politically and economically powerful elites more then in the interest of the weak (usually motivated by individual 'no choice', not collective goals). Where national groups are strongly urged to assimilate, there is often much resistance in spite of the use of governmental force.

If a government puts extreme emphasis on national unity and identity, it may resort, especially in the case of minorities originating from historical foes, to harsh, even extreme measures to 'exterminate' the minority culture, sometimes to the point of considering the only alternative its physical elimination (expulsion or even genocide).

Sometimes there are two contradictory tendencies at work. When a numerical minority and/or less developed culture achieves political power, usually by military conquest, it is in a formal position to impose elements of its culture on the counterpart, which usually happens at least at the start and in 'public' domains such as administration, but often this is more then compensated by a natural tendency for the older, richer culture and/or the law of numbers to see itself imitated by the new masters, e.g. the victorious Roman Empire adopted more from the hellenistic cultures then it imposed in mst domains, except such Roman ruler-specialities as law and military.

Cultural assimilation - Immigration

Socially pressured to adapt, the immigrant is generally the one who takes the steps to integrate the new environment he is in. Learning the language of the country or region, making new friends, new contacts, finding a job or going to school is all that is needed. The adaptation is made more difficult when the immigrant does not speak the language of his or her new home. Host, or "majority", cultures adapt by accepting newcomers as their own, and often giving them preferential treatment over themselves. Many times large scale immigration causes political unrest in societies which permit meaningful elections.

Cultural assimilation - Minority cultures

Assimilation can have negative implications for national minorities or aboriginal cultures, in that after assimilation the distinctive features of the original culture will be minimized and may disappear altogether. This is especially true in situations where the institutions of the dominant culture initiate programs to assimilate or integrate minority cultures. The assumption of integration, the making into one society, lies behind efforts for affirmative action.

Assimilation is or has been the official language policy of many countries around the world.

Cultural assimilation - Named cases

The terms used for such processes usually derve from a name for the group the minority is supposed to be blended into, rather symbolically, e.g.

• Arabization
• Italianization
• Polonization
• Rumanization
• Russification
• Sinicization
• Ukrainization

Cultural assimilation - Religious assimilation

Assimilation also refers to the secularization of religious members of a group, especially Judaism. Until the mid-19th century, most Jews were forced to live in small towns and were restricted from entering universities or high-level professions. The only way to get ahead in the host culture was to abandon their identification with co-religionists and become "assimilated Jews." Well-known assimilated Jews of this period include Moses Mendelssohn, Karl Marx, and Sigmund Freud, all of whom rose to prominence because of their dissociation with Orthodox Judaism. In the 20th century, rampant assimilation in the form of Jewish-Christian intermarriage decimated the ranks of Orthodox Judaism even further. Jewish law (Halakha) does not recognize children of non-Jewish mothers as Jewish, and further, the children of intermarriage are not raised with a strong Jewish identity and tend to intermarry themselves.

See also

• Acculturation
• Americanization
• Cultural imperialism
• Germanization
• Hegemony
• Integration
• Language shift
• Linguicide
• Media and ethnicity
• "More Irish than the Irish themselves"

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Cultural assimilation", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki