The Significance of Immigration in the Formation of an American Identity by Rudolph J. Vecoli
The term melting pot is used repeatedly throughout this text and I think it is important to understand what exactly is meant by the term melting pot. Was the wording for melting pot intentional? Did whoever came up with the term mean for homogeny and a mix of cultures to create one single American race? In class Naomi mentioned that she viewed America as more of a “stew” than a melting pot and I think that has something to do with how the melting pot has taken on different meanings throughout different time periods. Just as ones identity is not the same throughout their lives, the country’s identity is constantly changing and so is our interpretation of what it means to be a melting pot. Even though “revival of ethnicity” is more closely representative of what is happening in America, the term melting pot will remain because it has been around for so long and also our interpretation of what the melting pot means has also changed (Vecoli 22). Even though throughout this text, the melting pot is spoken of with more controversy and the idea of homogeny, the melting pot is more frequently spoken of with a positive connotation referencing a country rich in diversity and culture.
I think this reading provided a great breakdown of how America has evolved throughout the years in order to adapt to immigration. Looking back at my notes I found that a lot of what I wrote in the margins, aside of summarizations, were disagreements or rebuttals to what the Anglo-American elite wanted immigrants to do such as “abandon their distinctive linguistic, cultural, even religious, traits” (17). Even though Vecoli was simply explaining past expectations of the elite, I found that need to disagree which probably because I cannot even picture what identity immigrants were even expected to take on after throwing away their language and culture.
Immigrants in New York City in the New Millennium by Nancy Foner
Continuing my train of though from the last text, I think what New York City does, celebrating ethnicities with parades and observing various religious and cultural holidays should be what it means to be an American. Because I have lived in NYC all my life, embracing different ethnicities and cultures has become a default mindset.
One of the most interesting points from the text was the idea of the snowball effect with immigrants. Initially the snowball effect was introduced simply by the way of immigration, that when one relative came over, others would follow because it would be a little easier. Later on, I noticed that a parallel could be drawn with the way certain ethnic groups would have a larger presence in specific job fields. With Chinese people in the restaurant business, Jamaicans working in the health field as nurse aids and Pakistanis being cab drivers, it is easier to just do what others have tried and succeeded in because it minimizes the risks that you are taking, even if it is just by a little bit. However this snowball effect does not apply to the second-generation groups as it was noted that the children of immigrants, have a tendency to go into more mainstream jobs instead of the entrepreneurial jobs that their parents took on. I think for second-generation, more mainstream jobs are taken because they are more educated and it is easier to break into a world where your education makes you qualified. Entrepreneurship entails a lot of investment and risk. New immigrants opened up businesses because they were unable to become proficient in English and thus not be able to work in a workplace. So instead of struggling to communicate to their employers, immigrants became their own bosses in order to survive in NYC.
The Next Generation Emerges by Philip Kasinitz, John H. Mollenkopf and Mary C. Waters
Kasinitz put a lot of stress on what children of immigrants are going to do the NYC with its rapidly changing demographics. It was mentioned in the article that it is difficult to see what kinds of major changes the second generation can do to NYC as the second generation is too young to have become involved in the city’s politics. At the Common Event, Demographer Joe Salvo mentioned that there is a constant inflow and outflow of people in NYC and as a result the numbers for English proficiency will have very little change. I wonder how the second generation will handle some of these immigrant difficulties, as they understand immigrant struggles much better.
