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Assimilation Leading to Identity Loss

In The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, the Indian-American main character, Gogol, feels out of place since he does not feel American or Indian enough due to his name. For this reason, he felt as though he needed to abandon his Indian identity and completely adopt an American identity. This demonstrates identity loss due to assimilation. Assimilation “refers to the immigrant's decision to supplant behaviors and beliefs from the heritage culture with ones from the receiving culture.” Additionally, as defined by the American Psychological Association, identity is “an individual’s sense of self defined by (a) a set of physical, psychological, and interpersonal characteristics that is not wholly shared with any other person and (b) a range of affiliations (e.g., ethnicity) and social roles.” While this story may be fictional, it illustrates the real issue of assimilation leading to loss of identity and psychological stress for immigrants. As found by the World Health Organization, migrants exposed to adversities, such as assimilation difficulties, threats to cultural, religious, and gender identities, and social isolation, are more likely than members of the host country to to experience mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), suicide and psychoses. Additionally, researchers found that disturbances to identity can lead to cultural bereavement, which these researchers refer to as the anxiety and negative effects experienced by immigrants out of guilt for leaving behind their host country. This shows how assimilation can negatively impact migrants all over the world.

Despite the negative impact on identity from assimilation, there is not much being done about this issue in the United States as it is an issue that is not always recognized as an issue, with some finding assimilation to be positive. However, there are resources that assist immigrants in finding communities to help them assimilate, as well as resources that help immigrants with their mental health who may have been affected by assimilation. Awareness for the issue is also raised through the Internet and social media, serving as a platform for people to promote culture. Through these platforms, people are able to communicate with more people all over the world, allowing ethnic communities to have more opportunities to speak to each other and learn about their native culture. This also helps normalize other cultures. While assimilation describes one way that migrants are able to join society, there are other ways. Acculturation describes the broader idea of the cultural and psychological change that occurs when multiple cultures interact. Another way migrants are able to adapt to their new environment is integration, which refers to when people embrace both their original culture and the new culture of their environment. This process allows for people to not lose their original cultural identity in favor of their environment’s culture, potentially absolving them of the negative effects that assimilation may have had. Therefore, a solution that would fix the issue of identity loss would be to promote integration rather than assimilation. 

The loss of identity due to assimilation can lead to other issues as well. For example, economic science professor Kassie Freeman argues in her paper that black students’ sense of self is heavily impacted by the education system. She lists how the unemployment rates for African American men are twice that of white men. She also argues that statistics such as these, coupled with a lack of acknowledgement of black culture and efforts in society, lead to discouragement among African Americans, leading them to submit to assimilation into this society that is unfair to them. In this sense, Freeman argues that societal pressure leads to assimilation, which leads to African Americans accepting their apparent role in which they are discriminated against, which includes taking away from their identity and negatively impacts their finances. Similarly to Freeman’s argument assimilation and identity loss lead to negatively impacted finances, a study from professors Altschul, Oyserman, and Bybee confirmed that a lack of association with a race led to an increased risk of school failure for Mexican Americans that could ultimately lead to downward economic mobility, since they were able to correlate aschematic racial ethnic schema to negative impacts on schooling. This describes how Mexican Americans who did not embrace their Mexican culture and who only assimilated into American culture were more likely to lack understanding of or be missing part of their identity, leading them to fail school and not be able to find well paying jobs. This shows assimilation negatively impacting individuals as a result of identity loss. In this way, Freeman, Altschul, Oyserman, and Bybee all found assimilation and identity loss negatively impacted youth economically, despite studying differing groups of people. Similar to these professors, a study by psychology professors Berry, Phinney, Sam, and Vedder found that, while much of the youth they tested claimed to understand their ethnic language, when tested, they were found to have low proficiency in said language. These results, combined with other results, led them to the conclusion that these youths showed behaviors of assimilation and were confused about their place in society and their identity. This demonstrates how the youth who were found to assimilate were also the youth that were confused about identity, as well as how this confusion on identity led to a lack of understanding of their place in society. Therefore, these youth were negatively impacted from assimilation, similar to the youth of the previously stated studies despite speaking mainly on place in society rather than education and economics, showing another way assimilation negatively impacts youth. Similar to the researchers, an article from Maryland University, while agreeing that assimilation leads to negative impacts on individuals, argues that assimilation leads to psychological stress, focusing on this rather than economics or society. It states that the feelings of isolation from the majority cause immigrants to assimilate into the majority culture. This article still shows how immigrants are pressured to adapt to societies as a result of their mental state. Ultimately, all of these papers found that assimilation leads to identity loss, which led to even more negative effects for individuals.

While assimilation is an issue, there are some that have found it to benefit migrants. For instance, in his analysis of his paper, economics professor Abramitzky concluded that over time, U.S. immigrants gave their children less ethnic sounding names, which he considered an indicator of assimilation. He also found that doing so led to these children being more likely to complete schooling and become employed. This information implies that immigrants who assimilate are more likely to be successful in life. Similarly to Abramitzky, a study found that assimilation is more effective for minority groups and minority groups that started disadvantaged compared to whites in terms of academics ultimately improved outcomes with higher generations. Although disagreeing with Abramitzky on advantages/disadvantages prior to acculturating, this study ultimately agrees with Abramitzky on how assimilation benefits the careers of minorities. This suggests that assimilation may not have had negative effects on immigrants’ schooling and eventual careers, contradicting the negative effects of assimilation. 

However, integration has better accommodations for migrants. In his Letter to Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King Junior outlines the discrimination faced historically by African Americans, the inaction of the government to stop this discrimination, and how it negatively impacts African Americans. He describes how he and other African Americans do not accept American society the way it already is, since it will take away from African American identity. In this way, King is refusing to assimilate into American society, and instead wants to integrate into it, since he expresses that he and other African Americans do wish to join American society but wish to keep their identities and have equal rights. Similarly to the concept of integration being beneficial, researcher Samta P. Pandya found that assimilation and identity concerns are likely to affect the psychosocial and cognitive development of children of South-Asian origin and that navigating diverse cultures and beliefs are difficult for these children. Her study focused on how learning cultural Indian dance with online lessons, a connection to Indian culture, would impact South Asian children of Indian descent. She ultimately found that students who regularly attended lessons and were more connected to their Indian heritage benefitted from these lessons and performed better academically. This reinforces the idea that integration, in this case allowing children to live in another society while still exposing them to their native culture, benefits people. Similarly, integration allows for individuals to cope with psychological grief that may occur as a result of migration. As stated by researchers Bhugra and Becker, integration can be a tool to relieve migrants of the guilt they feel as a result of cultural bereavement. Integration will allow for these migrants to accept their new culture and adapt to society, while also keeping part of their original culture with them. This will absolve them of possible guilt and allow them to join their host country’s society, benefitting their mental health. Ultimately, all of these documents demonstrate how integration is beneficial.

While switching to and promoting integration is a good solution, there are limits. For instance, there is limited research on the topic. As stated by psychologists, there is limited information on the subject of identity loss. With only so much information on a topic, it is difficult to come to definite conclusions, since there may not be enough information to provide the needed confirmation. The topic of acculturation in general is also difficult to research, due to its many variables and complexities. Without being able to set parameters and variables specific enough, it will be difficult for studies to come to conclusions. This also further contributes to the lack of information. Additionally, many sources relating to assimilation and identity are from the early 2000s or even earlier. These are times without widespread Internet use and social media use, both of which significantly affect the cultural identity of individuals and their exposure to their own native culture and other cultures. This means that many studies were completed and interpreted without the understanding of the Internet, which completely changes how information is accessed.

Assimilation leads to the loss of cultural identity, which can negatively impact an individual’s mental health, career, and more. For these reasons, the promotion and implementation of integration is necessary. Integration will allow individuals to maintain the original cultural identity, while accepting a new cultural identity. This can be done through spreading awareness through social media and the Internet, encouraging people to use these resources to strengthen or to form their bonds with their native culture. Additionally, schools can encourage students to embrace their native culture through the use of clubs and cultural days, allowing students to wear cultural clothing to school. By encouraging integration over assimilation, immigrants will be able to adapt to society more easily.

References

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Chen, Guo-Ming, and Kai Zhang. “New Media and Cultural Identity in the Global Society .” 


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