Ethnic Roots

Ethnicity is also a social category that is important when we discuss immigration. A key concept for investigating ethnicity is that of culture. Used in a broad anthropological sense, culture is a complex pattern of learned behavior that is shared with a group. Frequently, that group is a community that shares a common language. Another important aspect of culture is that it is symbolic. Culture is not static but changes over time.

As examples of culture, think of the holidays that are meaningful to you, your religious heritage, your language, and even the way in which you understand the world and how you express your most deeply held values. Your culture also has a role in the type of music that you enjoy, how you like to spend your leisure time, the type of visual art that you find most interesting, and perhaps most importantly, the food that you find most enjoyable.

In our contemporary global world, cultures are not distinct but frequently adopt elements of other cultures that group members come into contact with. This can result in a type of hybridity, when elements from two or more usually distinct cultures come into contact. Often this can be the focal point for cultural growth and creativity.

In the context of immigration we are usually talking about two or more cultures coming into contact. An immigrant, for example from a Latin American country with a particular culture and ethnic group identification comes to the US to work. She then comes into contact with a radically different culture, with differing ways of behavior that are thought appropriate, with differing values about those things she holds most important in her life, and with a different language. Often the stated goal is for the immigrant from another cultural setting to assimilate into the larger culture of the host country. In assimilation, the immigrant lets go of her past culture and adopts the values, language, and tastes of the host country. Americans often conceptualize their country as one “melting pot” where individuals from a diverse range of countries that, with a determined effort over time, become “Americanized,” and adopt the cultural patterns of the majority population.

Sometimes the failure to assimilate quickly enough (from the point of view of the native-born American) can lead to conflict. One small example, a number of years ago (at a time that national immigration reform was being debated) a local sandwich shop (“Cheese Steak Shop”) in South Philadelphia, an area of the city that was previously inhabited mostly by Italian-Americans, posted a provocative sign: “This is America: Speak English When Ordering!” The area where the shop is located currently has a diverse population of Latinos/as, Asians, African-Americans, and Caucasians. This sign provoked intense local and regional debate over whether immigrants who failed to learn English quickly enough (or who chose to continue to use their native language) were ‘true Americans’ or even deserved to be served lunch! A friend of mine who was making a documentary film about this incident pointed out the irony: the parents of the individual who owned the sandwich shop and posted the "English Only" sign were originally from Italy and themselves were not very good English speakers. And of course, local conservative politicians and radio talk show commentators picked up the story. Rather than an indication of a vital city with a culturally diverse population, the incident was used as a barometer of the failure of more recent immigrants to assimilate into the large American middle class culture.