Downward Assimilation

Throughout the United State’s history, immigrants have come to America to seek better opportunities and to fulfill the American dream. As these immigrants began to have children, their children became part of the second-generation of Americans. The second-generation has been one of the most debated generation of American immigrants by social scientist as they have been perceived not to assimilate and perform worse than their parents (Waters 75). And that raises the question, are second-generation immigrants having difficulty assimilating into the American society? In the article, Should Immigrants Assimilate?, by Alejandro Portes and Min Zhou, both authors claim that assimilation rates vary from ethnic group to ethnic group. On the other hand,

Waters noted that “groups who are ‘racialized’ as ‘black’ or ‘hispanic’” were the most affected by downward assimilation, according to a study she conducted in New York City of second-generation adults (75). The study included both men and women from ages eighteen to twenty-two years old and were separated into groups based of the countries where their parents emigrated from. Portes and Zhou support Waters’ evidence about ethnic groups mentioned above by reporting in their article, in a separate sub-claim, that people of color are most likely to be affected by downward assimilation. However, Portes and Zhou extend Waters’ evidence by arguing that there are two other “features of social context encountered by today's newcomers that create vulnerability to downward assimilation:" location and lack of social mobility (57). Portes and Zhou informs us that second-generation children that are “ensconced in their ethnic communities may…have a better chance for educational and economic mobility” (56). Their evidence consequently complicates Waters’ evidence because they conclude that there are many other factors that influence second-generation downward assimilation aside from color. Furthermore, Waters challenges Portes and Zhou’s three features of downward assimilation by proposing her own own evidence that even though the study showed some downward

The studies that were introduced in both of the article’s showed that second-generation children do assimilate, yet Portes and Zhou claim that second-generation children are facing some form of downward assimilation based of their evidence. The children face difficulty assimilating because they are negatively affected by certain factors such as color and location. Waters’ then goes onto challenging Portes and Zhou main claim with evidence showing that there is rarely any downward assimilation based of her study. Waters claims that second-generation children are overcoming the factors of downward assimilation that Portes and Zhou mentioned, by motivating themselves and using their parent’s ethnic identity to achieve upward assimilation. As a result, second-generation children do assimilate but they do have some difficulty assimilating into