This article addresses an understudied area in studies of immigration—why patterns of acculturation of second-generation immigrants vary. To address this question, I draw on ethnographic research conducted among second-generation South Asian Muslims in New York City. Sociologists generally assume that acculturation is an inevitable process, and that it proceeds from less to more. I argue that acculturation is a more complex process that varies over time and situation for individuals, and can even go from more to less acculturation. Building on Judith Harris's group socialisation theory and Murray Milner Jr.'s theory of status relations, I propose that acculturation is a dynamic status process, and that we can better understand variations in patterns of acculturation of individuals by looking at their peers—the kinds of intimate associations that individuals make, and the kinds of peer group norms to which individuals conform.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Alba, Richard and Victor Nee . 2003. Remaking the American Mainstream: Assimilation and Contemporary Immigration. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press .
2.
Ali, Syed . 2002. Collective and Elective Ethnicity: Caste Among Urban Muslims in India . Sociological Forum. 17 (4): 593–620 .
3.
Ali, Syed . 2005. Why Here, Why Now? Young Muslim Women Wearing Hijab . Muslim World. 95 (4): 515–30 .
4.
Arif, Zeba . 2005. My Cover Story: A Decision Not to Wear the Hijab has Attracted Criticism from Some Patients . Nursing Standard. 19 (17): 23 .
5.
Berry, John . 1997. Immigration, Acculturation and Adaptation . Applied Psychology: An International Review. 46 (1): 5–68 .
6.
Berry, John , Jean Phinney , David Sam and Paul Vedder . 2006. Immigrant Youth: Acculturation, Identity and Adaptation . Applied Psychology: An International Review. 55 (3): 303–32 .
7.
Bhatia, Sunil and Anjali Ram . 2001. Rethinking ‘Acculturation’ in Relation to Diasporic Cultures and Postcolonial Identities . Human Development. 44 (1): 1–18 .
8.
Brubaker, Rogers . 2001. The Return of Assimilation? Changing Perspectives on Immigration and its Sequels in France, Germany, and the United States . Ethnic and Racial Studies. 24 (4): 531–48 .
9.
DeWind, Josh and Philip Kasinitz . 1997. Everything Old is New Again? Processes and Theories of Immigrant Incorporation . International Migration Review. 31 (4): 1096–112 .
10.
Ebaugh, Helen and Janet Chafetz (eds.). 2000. Religion and the New Immigrants: Continuities and Adaptations in Immigrant Congregations. Walnut Creek, CA: Alta Mira Press .
11.
Gans, Herbert . 1979. Symbolic Ethnicity: The Future of Ethnic Groups and Cultures in America . Ethnic and Racial Studies. 2 (1): 1–20 .
12.
Gans, Herbert . 1992. Second Generation Decline: Scenarios for the Economic and Ethnic Futures of the post-1965 American Immigrants . Ethnic and Racial Studies. 15 (2): 173–92 .
13.
Gans, Herbert . 1994. Symbolic Ethnicity and Symbolic Religiosity: Towards a Comparison of Ethnic and Religious Acculturation . Ethnic and Racial Studies. 17 (4): 577–92 .
14.
Gans, Herbert . 1997. Toward a Reconciliation of ‘Assimilation’ and ‘Pluralism’: The Interplay of Acculturation and Ethnic Retention Theories . International Migration Review. 31 (4): 875–93 .
15.
Gibson, Margaret . 1988. Accommodation without Assimilation: Sikh Immigrants in an American High School. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press .
16.
Glazer, Nathan . 1997. We are all Multiculturalists Now. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press .
17.
Gordon, Milton . 1961. Assimilation in America: Theory and Reality . Daedalus. 90 (2): 263–85 .
18.
Gordon, Milton . 1964. Assimilation in American Life. New York: Oxford University Press .
19.
Haddad, Yvonne and Adair Lumis . 1987. Islamic Values in the United States: A Comparative Study. New York: Oxford University Press .
20.
Harris, Judith . 1998. The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way they Do. New York: Free Press .
21.
Hollinger, David . 1995. Postethnic America: Beyond Multiculturalism. New York: Basic Books .
22.
Kasinitz, Philip , John Mollenkopf and Mary Waters . 2004. Worlds of the Second Generation. In P. Kasinitz , J. Mollenkopf and M. Waters (eds.) Becoming New Yorkers: Ethnographies of the New Second Generation, pp. 1–19. New York: Russell Sage Foundation .
23.
Kim, Karen . 2004. Chinatown or Uptown? Second-Generation Chinese American Protestants in New York City. In P. Kasinitz , J. Mollenkopf and M. Waters (eds.) Becoming New Yorkers: Ethnographies of the New Second Generation, pp. 257–89. New York: Russell Sage Foundation .
24.
Kranzler, George . 1995. The Economic Revitalization of the Hasidic Community of Williamsburg. In J.S. Belcove-Shalin (ed.) New World Hasidim: Ethnographic Studies of Hasidic Jews in America, pp. 181–204. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press .
25.
Kurien, Prema . 2005. Being Young, Brown, and Hindu: The Identity Struggles of Second-Generation Indian Americans . Journal of Contemporary Ethnography. 34 (4): 434–69 .
26.
Leonard, Karen . 1999. The Management of Desire: Sexuality and Marriage for Young South Asian Women in America. In S. Gupta (ed.) Emerging Voices: South Asian American Women Redefine Self, Family, and Community, pp. 107–19. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press .
27.
Leonard, Karen . 2003. Muslims in the United States: The State of Research. New York: Russell Sage Foundation .
28.
Levitt, Peggy and Mary Waters (eds.). 2002. The Changing Face of Home: The Trans-national Lives of the Second Generation. New York: Russell Sage Foundation .
29.
Maira, Sunaina . 2004. Youth Culture, Citizenship and Globalization: South Asia Muslim Youth in the United States after 11 September . Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East. 24 (1): 219–31 .
30.
Milner, Murray Jr.1994. Status and Sacredness: A General Theory of Status Relations and an Analysis of Indian Culture. New York: Oxford University Press .
31.
Milner, Murray Jr.2004. Freaks, Geeks, and Cool Kids: American Teenagers, Schools, and the Culture of Consumption. New York: Routledge .
32.
Morawska, Ewa . 1994. In Defense of the Assimilation Model . Journal of American Ethnic History. 13 (2): 76–88 .
33.
Naber, Nadine . 2005. Muslim First, Arab Second: A Strategic Politics of Race and Gender . Muslim World. 95 (4): 479–96 .
34.
Peek, Lori . 2005. Becoming Muslim: The Development of a Religious Identity . Sociology of Religion. 66 (3): 215–43 .
35.
Pew Research Center . 2007. Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream. Available at: http://pewresearch.org/pubs/483/muslim-americans. Accessed on 25 July 2007.
36.
Portes, Alejandro and Ruben Rumbaut . 1996. Immigrant America: A Portrait. Berkeley: University of California Press .
37.
Portes, Alejandro and Ruben Rumbaut . 2001. Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation. Berkeley: University of California Press .
38.
Portes, Alejandro and Ruben Rumbaut . 2005. Introduction: The Second Generation and the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study . Ethnic and Racial Studies. 28 (6): 983–99 .
39.
Portes, Alejandro , and Min Zhou . 1993. The New Second Generation: Segmented Assimilation and its Variants . The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences. 530: 74–97 .
40.
Ragin, Charles . 1977. Class, Status, and ‘Reactive Ethnic Cleavages’: The Social Bases of Political Regionalism . American Sociological Review. 42 (3): 438–50 .
41.
Read, Jen'nan . 2007. Introduction: The Politics of Veiling in Comparative Perspective . Sociology of Religion. 68 (3): 231–36 .
42.
Schmidt, Garbi . 2004. Islam in Urban America: Sunni Muslims in Chicago. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press .
43.
Shibutani, Tamotsu and Kian Kwan . 1965. Ethnic Stratification: A Comparative Approach. New York: MacMillan .
44.
Smith, Robert . 2006. Mexican New York: Transnational Lives of New Immigrants. Berkeley: University of California Press .
45.
Teske, Raymond Jr. and Bardin Nelson . 1974. Acculturation and Assimilation: A Clarification . American Ethnologist. 1 (2): 351–67 .
46.
Waldinger, Roger and Cynthia Feliciano . 2004. Will the New Second Generation Experience ‘Downward Assimilation’? Segmented Assimilation Re-assessed . Ethnic and Racial Studies. 27 (3): 376–402 .
47.
Warner, R. Stephen and Judith Wittner (eds.) 1998. Gatherings in Diaspora: Religious Communities and the New Immigration. Philadelphia: Temple University Press .
48.
Waters, Mary . 1994. Ethnic and Racial Identities of Second-Generation Black Immigrants in New York City . International Migration Review. 28 (4): 795–820 .
49.
Zhou, Min . 1997. Segmented Assimilation: Issues, Controversies, and Recent Research on the New Second Generation . International Migration Review. 31 (4): 975–1009 .
