Reading these articles, I was somewhat reminded of kids who create an imaginary line in the backseat of a car and force one another to stay on their own respective sides of that line. I think that in some ways, immigrants are wrong to expect that their enclaves will stay their own. If you are making the jump and coming to America, you can’t expect that it will be as homogenous as it was in your home country. This nation is full of other immigrants of other ethnicities, hoping to make it in the same place and just as badly as any other. In fact, you could say that these immigrants hoping to live the American dream is one of the CENTRAL characteristics of this country. As this is so, how can Puerto Ricans expect El Barrio to retain its strong Puerto Rican character and keep out an influx of other immigrant groups? How could Chinese immigrants to Sunset Park expect Chinatown to indeed remain Chinatown? And honestly, do Caucasians who flee neighborhoods with changing demographics in fits of “white flight”—themselves probably the descendants of immigrants–actually expect that, even if they move, they are going to be able to maintain their isolation forever? Not only is isolation based on a sense of superiority wrong, but, putting morality aside for a moment, I think it’s altogether completely unrealistic in this country. If you really want to make it here, you have to be willing to adapt to the ways of the land–and one of those “ways” is living alongside others who may not be just like you. There are ways to maintain one’s own culture and avoid assimilation while still sharing living space with others.