Naseem SadikTSOC240zProfessor Chung11/20/18AbstractIn every decision made there is always a sacrifice to be made, this is what we call opportunity cost.
Immigrants give up their allegiance/citizenship to their previous country for their new chosen home (if they plan on living long-term and dual-citizenship is not an option). On a deeper level this can mean that they give up a piece of themselves, either in the form of their culture, tradition, class and ethnic identity for a piece of a new culture which is known as acculturation. One of the biggest questions surrounding this phenomenon (that I happen to be researching) is this: As one moves on from their past do they hold onto what they find in the future? Even though some may argue that the individual has control over whether they can assimilate into another culture there are limitations to this viewpoint/position. Assimilation always occurs in an individual when emigrating to a new country because factors such as race, gender, class and religion affect ethnic identity formation and when these factors are used to discriminate there is resistance between the individual and the environment; the individual is the one that conforms to the environment in this scenario. In my paper there will be various studies that support this claim (referring to sources in the work cited page below). For conducting this research paper, the methods I employed to gather information on whether assimilation occurred due to internal and external conflicting factors in race, religion, class and culture was by interviewing second generation immigrants in the United States of America. By interviewing second generation individuals, I wanted to collect more information on their ethnic identity.
It was very crucial to internalize why some individuals chose to integrate American culture into their own culture and others reject and not associate with American culture. The questions presented towards the second-generation immigrants had a focus on their communities they grew up in. It was important to focus on the interviewees communities to see how easy it was and whether it allowed for integration of American Culture. Understanding their familial background was another emphasis in the interview as this would allow me to understand whether they were forced or set free in terms of how closely in touch they had to be with their cultures. For gathering this type of information, the questions I asked focused on how they were raised and what values (cultural and moral) their parents instilled in them.
I also asked their views on how important their culture was towards themselves.
