Assimilation of Latin America with the US My previous order with essay pro gave me a vague, and repetitive sentence and writing a structured paper.
I want you to develop, complement with relevant sources, and edit it clearer.
Student’s Name
Name of Instructor:
Course Code and Name:
Date of Submission:
Assimilation of Latin America with the US Introduction
As the Latin America culture has been slowly assimilated in the U.S culture, the relationship between Latin America and the United States has also been changing over the years since the 1980s (Schoultz, 2014). The U.S has a lot of interest in Latin America, thus influencing the power of the American government. The U.S has been importing oil majorly from the Middle East and Mexican oil has been very beneficial economically to the United States. With Mexico being one of the biggest trade partners of the U.S, the United States banks are also increasing their business in Latin America over the years. The relationship between the United States and Latin America has influenced the political, social, economic and culture of the United States. Therefore, there has been a lot more immigration of Latin Americans into the United States, increased tourism and more U.S companies and the American culture has also had an effect on the religion of the Latin America through the increase of Protestant evangelism among Latinos (Lichter, 2015). The interaction between the two different cultures and religions has led to both parties being influenced in some sort of way, with the United States being influenced the most.
Ties between the United States and Latin America have been strengthened through oil imports, Latin America is also the largest supplier of drugs to the United States. Another reason for the increased ties is that Latin America population covers the majority of U.S immigrants some documented and other not documented (Schoultz, 2014). These immigrants cross the border into the U.S in search of safety or better lives for their families and end up living their whole lives in the United States. The U.S is also awarding citizenship to those immigrants that qualify and are deemed as not threats to the U.S. This has led to the increased population of Latinos in the U.S and their culture has also been influencing the American culture in various ways.
With this research, we will determine whether the assimilation of Latin America to American culture has been more predominant than the assimilation of American culture to Latin America culture. With the increased relations between the U.S and Latin America, the U.S has lost its status of being dominant over Latin America because countries in Latin America have grown and developed and have created more relations with other large traders including China (Schoultz, 2014).
When it comes to the political scene, Latin America has had a huge impact in the domestic political climate in the United States, with presidential candidates promising to give more attention to Latin America because of the many and huge opportunities present there (Lichter, 2015). However, problems between the relationship between the U.S and Latin America is drugs, immigration, Cuba and trade affect the political environment of the U.S.
Latin America also has a role in the security of the United States, where the U.S depends largely on the support from Latin America for the U.S policies that were developed to prevent the threat from Communist expansion. In any case one of the countries in Latin America changes their support for U.S policies towards Latin America, the U.S faces the risk of being in a position of not leading the Free World as it should (Lichter, 2015).
Assimilation is usually used in place of acculturation, despite their different meanings. Assimilation is simply the process where different cultural groups change over time and become more similar with similar cultures and traditions. However, acculturation is the process where a culture interacts with another culture and adopts some traditions and cultures from the other culture, but still maintain practices and traditions from their own native culture (Schoultz, 2014). With assimilation, the culture of one group is gradually lost over time while in acculturation, the native culture of the group remains the same but is only added onto. An example of acculturation process is when a group of immigrants will come into the country and learn and adopt the country’s culture and practices to make their lives easier and be able to communicate with the natives, get jobs, meet people and make friends, but at the same time, they hold onto their cultural values and practices. Acculturation can also be described as a process where the natives take up and adopt some cultural values and traditions from the culture of the immigrants or minority groups (Schoultz, 2014). For example, with the America natives taking up the culture of Latinos eating some type of food like Tacos, and also listening to Spanish music and artists due to the increase in Latino population in the United States. Therefore, we can say that assimilation of Latins in the United States is slowly progressing and both cultures are taking up and adopting cultural practices from the other culture.
With the assimilation, comes the integration, which is a form of assimilation where a minority group come into a new country and become more like the native majority culture (Lichter, 2015). With social scientists suggesting that integration would be a better way to incorporate the immigrants into the United States, several strategies have been employed to ensure that these minority groups are comfortable and well accommodated. Integration is a process where the government or different sectors of the country will incorporate laws and opportunities, where people from all different cultures and ethnicities feel welcomed (Schoultz, 2014). When Latinos began moving to the United States, over the years, their population was increasing and Spanish media station started developing to broadcast in Spanish and cater for the Latinos in the United States. Radio stations were also established with Spanish –languages and Spanish songs were being played (Schoultz, 2014). Over the years, Spanish songs had a billboard chart exclusive for ranking Spanish songs in the United States. With the Latino population increasing and being widespread over different geographical locations in the United States, Latino musicians, actors and actresses, and entertainers have become widely accepted and successful in the United States and have gained worldwide fame and access to amazing opportunities (Lichter, 2015). Therefore, as the assimilation of Latinos continues in the United States, integration is also occurring and they are getting more opportunities to develop their talents, families and their living standards over time.
Assimilation of Latin America with the US Literature Review
During the research I conducted, I reviewed and analyzed several kinds of literature available on the relationship between the United States and Latin America and the effects Latin America has had in the political, social, and economic and culture of the United States. There are numerous literature and studies showing just how much Latin America culture has assimilated to the America culture and vice versa. The studies conducted have shown that the U.S is assimilating more and the Latin America culture is increasingly spreading and widely accepted in the U.S (Schoultz, 2014). Immigration of the Latin America into the U.S has been increasing over the years due to the increase of the desire and goals of Latinos in these countries for more industrialization and better living standards, which is not available in these countries and therefore they result to moving to the U.S.
The studies show that the perception of Latin America towards the U.S is deteriorating over time because they feel that the U.S has neglected them and the lack of development and growth in their countries (Lichter, 2015). The literature analyzed also showed how Latin America culture has been assimilated to America in several ways. One, the eating habit and cuisines being served in the U.S today. The cultural diffusion where Spanish restaurants are being developed all over in the United States, serving Mexican dishes like burritos and tacos, which have become a favorite dish for many Americans (Schoultz, 2014). Numerous pizza joints have also opened up and are serving Spanish delicacies, employing multicultural employees so as to cater to all different customers and also accepting payment in Mexican pesos in these restaurants. The cultural diffusion has also been present through the Spanish language where there has been an increase in population speaking Spanish in America over the years, due to the interaction with Latinos living in America. There has also been the Influence that the Latino music has had in the urban entertainment scene in America, with the developing of Spanish-language media networks airing Spanish shows and the Spanish-language radio stations in America that play and promote Spanish songs in America (Qian, 2018). This has increased the cultural diffusion, with America population being drawn more to the Latino culture. Through these several ways, the Latin America culture has had a huge influence on the cultural production in the United States.
The research conducted showed that the population of Latinos in the United States has been increasing over the years and is now more than 35 million Latinos in the U.S. Latin Americans are known for their diversity in ethnicity and culture. The Latino population has had an impact on the demography of the United States and also in other areas including food, music, language, and media and business sector (Macias, 2016). The buying power of Latinos has increased than that of the African American and American Indian population because of their large family units and their improved financial freedom (Macias, 2016). However, with the increase in population comes a challenge brought about by the diversity of the Latin Americans which makes it difficult to understand the effect they have in the U.S society.
Assimilation of Latin America with the US Theoretical Framework
There are a few theories that explain the assimilation of Latin America to America culture. Assimilation is described as the process where two different cultures come together and slowly change, and become more alike over time (González, 2016). One, assimilation is a linear process that includes one culture changing and being similar to another culture gradually. The Latin Americans come to the United States and are very different from the Native Americans at the beginning but they gradually change over the generations, assimilating to the American culture (Macias, 2016). They start speaking more English, they begin watching American shows and music and also get hooked on some American traditions of coffee in the morning and school. When the children of the immigrants are born, they are raised in an environment that has a culture different from that on Latin America and therefore, they grow up with American culture and traditions. Therefore, the American culture becomes their native culture but they still follow some of the Latin American traditions and culture (González, 2016). While the second generation of kids is born, they are most likely to fully maintain the Native American culture and not have any cultural traditions from Latin American. Therefore, they are indistinguishable culturally from Native American culture. This theory basically explains how Latin Americans are slowly absorbed into a society that is referred to as a melting pot. This can also be described as ‘Americanization’ (Macias, 2016).
Another theory used in assimilation is that assimilation depends on the ethnicity and race of a group, religion of the group (Talwar, 2018). Therefore, these factors can make assimilation easy and simple or it can be full of challenges that include racism, ethnocentrism, bias based on religion and xenophobia. This theory of assimilation was especially more common back in the 1900s when racism was very predominant and immigrants were not allowed to buying or building homes in residential areas whose largest population was white people. This created segregation between the two different groups and culture and there was no much interaction between the two which led to a difficult process of assimilation for the immigrants (González, 2016). When Latin Americans come to America, they face a lot of discrimination because some may not speak in English, which makes them deemed inferior and also because of their different ethnicity, they are given the low paying jobs which makes them even less likely to improve their living standards over the years
The third theory on assimilation is that assimilation is determined by the social status of the group (Hamilton, 2015). Immigrants who come into the country with minimal resources and get jobs as laborers are usually marginalized socially from the native society because of their economic and financial status. When immigrants would come into the country, the majority had no finances enough to cater for their families and therefore, they end up living together with other immigrant families as a large group in order to share the little resources they have (Talwar, 2018). This way, they keep to themselves and are isolated from the native culture and the interaction is barely there or very minimal. Other immigrants that are in the middle class and those that are wealthy, get to have access to good homes, resources and education with other families from the native culture which makes them assimilate more easily (González, 2016). When Latin Americans come to America, they face discrimination and alienation where they are treated unequally and do not get access to resources similar to those of the natives (Talwar, 2018). They stick together and continue to live according to their culture while still working labor jobs, and will live in poor conditions and so not get to have much interaction with the American culture for them to assimilate easily and faster. However, today, Latin American immigrants are more vibrant where they come to America even with minimal resources, they work hard to get to be accepted in the society and give their children a chance to interact with other kids, which makes the assimilation process easier.
When assimilation happens, it can be measured in different ways including socioeconomic status, were Latin Americans come to America and work hard to I prove their socioeconomic status to be equal as that of the native population (Hamilton, 2015). When they Latinos manage to improve their economic status, assimilation is said to have occurred successfully within the society. It is also measured through the geographic distribution of the Latinos in America. When Latinos are clustered in one area, assimilation will be very minimal, while when the Latinos are dispersed over a large area, they assimilate more easily because they get to live and interact with the native-born population (Zimmermann, 2015).
Another measure of assimilation is the language of the immigrant. When Latinos come to America, the majority will learn how to speak in English over the years, which is a sign of successful assimilation (Zimmermann, 2015). When the Latinos eventually lose their families’ native language over the generations, this is considered as full assimilation because they now belong to the native culture and traditions. Another form of assimilation measurement is the rate of intermarriage between the Latinos and the native-born population (Hamilton, 2015). Intermarriage will include crossing the lines between the different within the different ethnicities, races, and religion. Therefore, when there are fewer intermarriages between Latinos and Native-born population, this will be a sign of minimal assimilation while high amounts of intermarriages will suggest that assimilation has occurred successfully.
To conduct this research, we used data from the Latino National Political Survey and the U.S census to determine patterns of interactions and inter residential mobility for 5,000 residents of the U.S from different Latin American countries. The data collected showed that spatial assimilation theory was the most commonly applied where Latin Americans mobility to residential areas that were predominantly white was increasing with the improvement of socioeconomic status and use of English to communicate. The data also showed a lot of segmented assimilation theory applied, where Mexicans are more likely to move to residential areas that are predominantly white than Puerto Ricans. It also showed the classical assimilation theory where darker skin Mexicans are more likely to move to predominantly white residential areas, compared to darker skinned Puerto Ricans and Cubans.
Assimilation of Latin America with the US Conclusion
The Latin American population is increasingly being viewed as a resource for the United States. Businesses and institutions are being affected by the increasing Latino population in the U.S. in the near future, Latin Americans will be the entrepreneurs, investors, employees, and customers for the majority of businesses (Hamilton, 2015). The Latin American population is viewed as a resource because of its diversity and bilingual and multicultural nature which benefits the business sector by expanding markets for businesses into the Latin America countries. The available higher education is giving the Latinos a chance to be highly educated and also be educators in the United States, hence increasing their benefits in the state (Zimmermann, 2015). Latinos have also influenced the political environment in the United States by having a major role in elections, being involved as voters and also as candidates to lead the United States. Politicians are increasingly realizing that the Latinos have a large share of votes in the United States and are focusing more on them and giving them access to better living standards (Talwar, 2018). Latinos are also moving to the healthcare sector with some being nurses and doctors in American hospitals after pursuing degrees in American universities. The Latin American population is increasingly dispersing into various parts of the U.S and therefore they will have a major impact on all areas and sectors over the next several years.
The U.S discourses have changed the relationship between U.S and Latin America countries and it has changed the perception that the U.S had in Latin America. The discourses also brought about different interests of the U.S in Latin America. The assimilation of Latinos in the United States has been welcomed with the incorporation of integration, where Latinos are given more chances and opportunities than before, to develop themselves and hold a respectable position in the society. With Latin America having a chance of better and improved living standards, it has contributed in improving the economy of the United States because of their hard work and also the political scene, with Latinos having a chance to hold leadership positions to represent the minorities and their interests.
Assimilation of Latin America with the US Works Cited
González, Mariana Y. Villanueva. “Shale Gas: Opportunities and Challenges between Mexico and the United States.” Natural Resources Journal 56.2 (2016): 313-328.
Hamilton, Tod G., Tia Palermo, and Tiffany L. Green. “Health assimilation among Hispanic immigrants in the United States: The impact of ignoring arrival-cohort effects.” Journal of health and social behavior 56.4 (2015): 460-477.
Lichter, Daniel T., Zhenchao Qian, and Dmitry Tumin. “Whom do immigrants marry? Emerging patterns of intermarriage and integration in the United States.” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 662.1 (2015): 57-78.
Macias, Thomas. “Environmental risk perception among race and ethnic groups in the United States.” Ethnicities 16.1 (2016): 111-129.
Qian, Zhenchao, Daniel T. Lichter, and Dmitry Tumin. “Divergent pathways to assimilation? Local marriage markets and intermarriage among US Hispanics.” Journal of Marriage and Family 80.1 (2018): 271-288.
Schoultz, Lars. Human Rights and the United States Policy Toward Latin America. Vol. 81. Princeton University Press, 2014.
Talwar, Jennifer. Fast food, fast track: Immigrants, big business, and the American Dream. Routledge, 2018.
Zimmermann, Kim Ann. “American culture: Traditions and customs of the United States.” Live Science (2015).
