Talk:Second-generation immigrants in the United States

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Elisea02.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 03:24, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

"Segmented Assimilation" Section

Your current section on segmented assimilation could use some expansion. Have you read the article "The New Second Generation" by Portes and Zhou? My suggestion is to include the fact that segmented assimilation depends on the context an immigrant arrives into in their host community. There are external factors within a community that determine the upward and downward assimilation of an immigrant; these are known as "modes of incorporation." I just think that this section needs a little more background to the theory of segemented assimilation! QuincyC (talk) 02:20, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

Also, in your section on African American immigrants, it might be interesting to add how a lot of Haitins have gone to Florida in addition to New York being a popular destination. I've totally read an article about Black immigrants and how they hold onto their ethnicities more. In addition to lacking the accents of their parents, they also dress different so will try to mimic the dress of their parents to show their identity. QuincyC (talk) 01:05, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

Hello QuincyC,

Thank you for your suggestions! I do agree with you that the current section on segmented assimilation needs to be expanded. Yes, I have read the article on "The New Second Generation," but not in great detail. I will go head and read it again and use it to expand the section, along with other articles I may find.

In reference to your suggestion about including information on Florida being a popular destination for Haitians, I actually read an article that mentioned this, but the article did not go into much detail. I will try to find some articles that speak on this and expand the section on African Americans.

Once again thank you for all your suggestions!

Marymorales291 (talk) 03:04, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

Suggested Revisions

Great job, Mary! This is a well-researched and well-thought out article. A few minor suggestions: 1) In the "Criticisms" section the sentence "A major factor that contributes to second generation immigrants doing so well is the drive to succeed and do better than their predecessors that is commonly instilled in these immigrants from childhood by their families" should be expanded upon or at least have a citation. I think this is definitely true, but it might be good to provide some statistics or note if this is more likely to occur among specific immigrant groups.

2) I agree that the "Segmented Assimilation" section could use a bit of work. I don't know a whole lot about this theory, but I was a bit confused about how exactly it differed from other theories of assimilation. Are the basic arguments that immigrants don't have to give up their cultural practices in order to be successful/experience upward mobility in the US and also that immigrants may not all experience upward mobility? You can probably just rework the intro paragraph a bit to make this more clear.

3)This is very minor, but under the "Other theories" section, the last sentence reads "With greater assimilation exhibited by each succeeding immigrant generation, unique ethnic characteristics that were clearly evident by the first generation fade away." Do you mean "clearly evident IN the first generation"? Or "unique ethnic characteristics fade away by the second generation"? I would just revise the wording to make your point clear. You might also consider mentioning this theory before the segmented assimilation theory since this seems to be the most prevalent theory, at least historically.

4) Again, pretty minor, but I would reword this sentence under "Hispanics": "In comparison to the first generation Hispanics, the second generation immigrants have a greater likelihood of intermarrying, aiding in the elimination of disparities along ethnic lines in the U.S. as an increasing number of interracial children with multiple heritages are being born." A suggestion: "In comparison to first generation Hispanic immigrants, second generation Hispanics are more likely to intermarry with members of other racial groups. These higher rates of racial intermarriage lead to an increase in the birthrates of interracial children, aiding in the elimination of disparities in the U.S. that exist along ethnic lines."

5) Under "Asian Americans," I would reword the sentence "This gives second generation immigrants a greater chance of being born into the middle class compared to other second generation groups" to "Second generation Asian immigrants are therefore more likely to be born into a middle class family than second generation immigrants from other racial groups."

Overall, I think your article is very thorough and informative--I really enjoyed reading it!Naomi FK (talk) 00:28, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Hello NaomiFK,

1) In response to your first suggestion, I will go head and add a citation to that sentence.

2) The theory of segmented assimilation centers on the idea that immigrants do not all follow the same assimilation path. Some immigrants experience downward assimilation, others assimilate smoothly into middle class, and some experience rapid advancement. In contrast, other theories, like linear assimilation argues that immigrants experience only one path of assimilation, and that is into mainstream society. I plan on expanding the section on segmented assimilation and I will make sure to make the distinction between this theory and others more clear.

3)I do mean IN the first generation, so I will fix my wording in that sentence. I chose to place other theories after segmented assimilation because segmented assimilation has the greatest support today, but I will consider reorganizing these subsections. Thank you.

4&5) Thank you for these suggestions.

Your suggestions are very good and I will take them all into consideration. Thank you once again!

Marymorales291 (talk) 03:17, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

Suggest Revision #2

This is a great article! Most of my comments were simple grammar checks, but the content of this article is really interesting, and especially caught my attention because I am a second generation immigrant. Great job covering all the bases and explaining the theories and concepts well!

Looking at the intro, it looks like the focus is the socioeconomic patterns of second generation immigrants. Thus, I’m not sure if you really need to elaborate on the definition of the term. Also, I didn’t know until the end of the paragraph that you were looking to compare first and second generation immigrants, so you could state this earlier in the intro (you could do this by switching the second and third paragraphs of the intro).

• After stating “Second generation immigrants are also less likely to live in poverty relative to their first generation counterparts.” I think it would help to give a specific statistic!
• Awkward wording: “The process by which these second generation immigrants are assimilated into society is increasingly being researched”
• Grammatical error: “Generally, immigrants enter the sectors of the labor force that experiences low pay.” Change to experience
• Run-on and confusing sentence: “In a survey of immigrant offspring, native whites, native blacks, and native Hispanics, more overlap between these groups than the theory of segmented assimilation allows for was found, with one finding being similar arrest rates.”

-“A major factor that contributes to second generation immigrants doing so well is the drive to succeed and do better than their predecessors that is commonly instilled in these immigrants from childhood by their families. “

Awkward wording: “There exists much diversity in terms of ethnicities and races within the second immigrant generation population.”

In the criticism section you wrote “Arrest rates indicate similarities in the engagement of deviant behavior between second generation immigrants and the native white population in the U.S., contradicting the theory of segmented assimilation since these similarities supports the idea of assimilation towards the dominant norm”. I’m not sure what the dominant norm is, maybe elaborate a little bit? You state “They make use of so called “black spaces,” which are free of racism, to connect with other African Americans and reconnect with the cultures of their parents”. What are “black spaces”? You state “This diversity among immigrants leads to a majority of second generation immigrants being bilingual, with 2/3 speaking a language other than English in their homes”. Im not sure that the diversity among immigrants makes them bilingual…

Great job again! Njeri Muturi (talk) 02:55, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

Hello Njeri Muturi,

I choose to elaborate on the definition of second generation immigrants in order to address the ambiguity surrounding the term, and to make it clear that the article is based on the definition used by major research centers, making it the most credible definition.

I will go back and make it clear earlier on that the article is based on differences between the first generation and second generation in terms of statistics. Thank you for noticing that!

Thank you for all your grammatical, citations, and wording ambiguity suggestions. I will take these all into consideration!

Once again thank you! Your suggestions are very helpful.

Marymorales291 (talk) 03:27, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

Why is there no section for whites?

Are white people never second generation immigrants? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.238.67.104 (talk) 12:38, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

recent edits

• @Rjwilmsi: There have been some recent changes to the article, but I am not sure if they are constructive. Would you kindly take a look at the article? —usernamekiran (talk) 16:15, 8 November 2022 (UTC)

Wikipedia Ambassador Program course assignment

This article is the subject of an educational assignment at Rice University supported by the Wikipedia Ambassador Program during the 2011 Q3 term. Further details are available on the course page.

The above message was substituted from {{WAP assignment}} by PrimeBOT (talk) on 16:52, 2 January 2023 (UTC)