Assimilation - Adaptation of one ethnic or social group – usually a minority – to another. Assimilation involves the subsuming of language, traditions, values, mores and behaviour or even fundamental vital interests. Although the traditional cultural practices of the group are unlikely to be completely abandoned, on the whole assimilation will lead one group to be socially indistinguishable from other members of the society. Assimilation is the most extreme form of acculturation.
This term is important to understand the pressure Immigrant people have to fit into the culture they are coming to. The term in a way tries to erase their history and tries to create a new story by placing them into a perfect box of what they want their county to look like. I think this term is important to understand because it can get lost in wanting to make an “ideal” culture and in doing so we may cause more harm than good. Assimilation is important in some ways, for example, cultural customs and overall mannerisms, however, we need to be careful we aren’t telling people their way is wrong and our way is right.
Source:Key Migration Terms. (2016, March 16). Retrieved from https://www.iom.int/key-migration-terms
Keywords: refugee, immigration, assimilation Author: Purple
This is definitely an important term for transnational feminism, so my thanks to you for writing on it. However, I am struggling to conceptualize ways in which assimilation is a positive impact. I think this is a harmful message to reproduce, and downplays the violence of conformity and silenced that is demanded in assimilation policies and practices. What "cultural customs and overall mannerisms" are necessary to comply with in one place that are not already taken up? Upon mention of cultural mannerisms, I think of dinner-time prayers for example: which cultural customs of dinner-time prayers should be assimilated? Is the Christian practice of saying Grace being asked to assimilate, or is it South Indian meals which may use hands instead…