In their article on immigrant assimilation, Waters and Jimenez highlight the recent trend of immigrants to settle in Midwestern states and in the suburbs, the so-called “new immigrant gateways”, away from the higher cost of living in cities in which immigrants of earlier centuries were forced to live if they were to have any hope of having jobs. Transportation in the U.S. has come very far in the past several decades, allowing for those who work in the city to live on its outskirts, where it is cheaper, without having to give up having a satisfactory job. Living in a metropolis is no longer central to immigrant success in the U.S. This can be seen in New York, where many commute to work from New Jersey, Westchester, and other relatively rural parts. Hence, the observation that California and New York are seeing a smaller influx of immigrants was not at all surprising. Having immigrated here with my family, I can attest to how expensive life in New York can seem (not that I’m saying that it’s at all cheap to live here even when you’re more established) when you don’t have much money in your pocket, and our being able to settle in Brooklyn with the knowledge that commuting to work wouldn’t be a problem for my parents, was truly important.

Waters and Jimenez’s observation that first generation immigrants speak their native language, second generation immigrants are bilingual and third generation immigrants speak the language of the country they were born in is unfortunate, for much culture is lost with the loss of the language. I can once again attest to this, as my cousin grew up on mostly American cartoons and books, rather than a mix of Russian and American, and this is reflected in her values and habits, especially when compared to mine. The mention of intermarriage as the ultimate indication of a completion of mixing of cultures and races is a very interesting point, and I agree that it carries importance in the melting together of heavily diverse cultures. However, I think that many other criteria and factors must be accounted for when considering how mixed an area has become and intermarriage doesn’t stand out as being much more important than language assimilation.