I find the question of “to what exactly do immigrants assimilate?” very interesting. For one thing, the various trajectories of assimilation are fascinating, and they can have severe social impacts. For instance, dissatisfied and stressed-out second and third generation immigrants, who do not do much better than their first-generation parents and grandparents may feel ostracized and blocked off from ever attaining the desired social status of assimilated “American”. This in turn can lead to a rise in social conflicts as people will turn to other methods of attaining a sense of belonging and end up separating themselves further from mainstream society. Will downward assimilation become more and more prominent in the coming years, as more and more immigrants struggle to make a better life for themselves? What will this mean for native minorities? Will they follow in the same trend or will their social mobility perceptively increase in the future?