Cultural assimilation

Assimilation ( assimilation also ) called in sociology the mess - matching of different social groups ( up to the merger). The focus can be on the process or the outcome. Individual assimilation is - for the understanding of the processes at the social level - to be distinguished from the assimilation of groups. Empirically, is the fusion of a minority by a majority in the foreground. Assimilation can take place on a cultural ( acquisition of language, customs and traditions ), structural ( placement in the labor market, in the school system, etc.), social ( contact with members of other groups ) and emotional level.

It is disputed whether this is the concept of assimilation to a selective imposition of the characteristics and attitudes of the dominant society ( dominant culture ) or whether assimilation is merely empirical prerequisite for achieving equal opportunities, without implying a valuation of the properties would be connected by minorities.

Usually, the adoption of the language is connected (with simultaneous task of their own ) and the habits and customs of their host country with the assimilation of immigrants. Thus, for example, in relation to the 19th century, even by an assimilation of the Jews (see below) spoken in the majority of societies of their home countries.

Theoretical Approaches

The most important and still valid as accepted theory of assimilation comes from the American sociologist Milton M. Gordon, which she set up in 1964. Although Gordon started from the American example, it has been able to develop a theory that could be transferred to other cases and has proven itself in individual studies. He divided the process of assimilation into seven stages:

The latter five stages are attributed to structural assimilation continuously in the recent literature, and no longer as an independent form. It is different with the first two stages - or forms - the assimilation of cultural and structural. You are the part of Gordon's theory, the broad reception has found and continues to be considered in a modified form as a valid will.

The definition of assimilation, which summarizes the current state of research, is by J. Milton Yinger:

" Assimilation is a process of dissolution of boundaries ( boundary reduction), which can occur when members of two or more companies or smaller cultural groups meet. If they are viewed as a completed process, it is [ assimilation ] the blending of previously distinct socio-cultural groups to a Single. However, if we view assimilation as a variable, which in my opinion deepens our understanding, we find that assimilation can range from the humblest beginnings of interaction and cultural exchange through to thorough amalgamation of the groups. "

Assimilation of the Jews

The question of the assimilation of the Jews was the late 19th to early 20th century, a strong presence in Jewish debates. " The question of assimilation and symbiosis is closely connected with the definition of Jewishness. " Assimilation was different in the individual countries. Pronounced it was there where they could find in a pronounced bourgeoisie as an ally.

Gershom Scholem held an assimilation of the Jews hopeless: " Very large sections of the German Jews were indeed willing to liquidate their nationality, but wanted to be sure very different extents, their Judaism, as an inheritance, as a confession, as a Ichweißnichtwas, an indefinable and yet in the consciousness preserve clear existing item. They were what is often forgotten at that total assimilation, which was willing to pay the majority of their elite with the disappearance, not ready. "

The hopes, the Jews had connected with the assimilation, were destroyed with the coming to power of the National Socialists.

Forced assimilation of Aboriginal people in Canada and Australia

In Canada, an attempt was made systematically since the 19th century, Aboriginal children ( First Nations ) in boarding schools ( residential schools ) to alienate their own culture. Similar programs also existed in other countries, such as in Australia with the Aborigines (→ Stolen Generations ).

Assimilation of the inhabitants of the kingdom Lands Alsace-Lorraine after 1918

In the Treaty of Versailles ( 1919), France regained the territories that it had ceded in 1871 after the Franco-German War to the German Reich. They were XIV since the Reunionspolitik Louis part of the French state and had previously belonged to Germany.

France operating in these areas since 1919 a policy of assimilation. Approximately 200 000 people of German descent were expelled from the country after Reich Germany - ethnic cleansing. The assimilation policy caused much discontent and resistance in Alsace ( details here).

Pictures of Cultural assimilation

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