In the “Rethinking Assimilation” section of his “Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Assimilation But Were Too Afraid To Ask,” Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco explores a very complicated, yet very compelling, issue of immigration. By analyzing the trajectory of social perceptions towards immigrants throughout U.S. history, particularly in regards to the major peaks of immigration during the first and final decades of the twentieth century, Suárez-Orozco highlights a key characteristic that may inform how Americans are destined to view the immigrant: “New immigrants always fail the comparative test by falling short of the mythico-historic standards set by earlier immigrants. Hence, the most basic rule governing public attitudes about immigration: we love immigrants at a safe historical distance but are much more ambivalent about those joining us now” (7). This idea mirrors in some ways the notion presented in earlier readings of Irish immigrants being regarded as the “new blacks,” an image the former group worked hard to shed. These two principles, then, may be beneficial in understanding how both natives and descendants of immigrants may perceive foreigners of more recent arrival in the coming years.
–Sophia Curran
