In spite of the work we have done as a field to be more accepting and welcoming of students with cultural differences, there continues to be a misguided push towards cultural assimilation.  Companies that are supposedly dedicated to advancing equity continue to offer opportunities for parents to learn how to “assimilate to American culture.”  Many educators continue to look for ways to help their students and their families learn how to assimilate.  However, cultural assimilation does not help our immigrant families; instead, it is a process through which students are stripped of their heritage and identity to make others (white, mainstream individuals) more comfortable.  

What exactly is cultural assimilation?  Cultural assimilation is a process through which immigrants and Native Americans are asked to let go of their heritage (or at least hide aspects of it) so that they can become more like the dominant culture. Becoming assimilated may include letting go of language, ethnic foods, religion, and/or clothing.  Those who support cultural assimilation believe that it creates a more cohesive and united society; however, history begs otherwise.

First, cultural assimilation cannot create a more homogenized society when considering the prevalent racial hegemony.  For example, Takao Ozawa v. The United States (1922) demonstrates the futility of assimilation in light of racial differences.  Mr. Ozawa, a Japanese immigrant who had come to the United States 20 years past and had focused on assimilating to the white culture, unsuccessfully petitioned the Supreme Court to allow for his naturalization.  The majority opinion acknowledged Mr. Ozawa’s attempts to assimilate, specifically highlighting his attendance at an American high school and subsequently at the University of California; his practice of Christianity at home with his family; and his family’s English fluency.  They wrote, “That he was well qualified by character and education for citizenship is conceded.”  In other words, the courts conceded that he had done a good job assimilating.  However, the rest of the majority opinion explained why racially, he fell short of being able to naturalize since laws at the time only permitted those who were racially classified as white or African descent to naturalize. Assimilation had resulted in a loss of identity for Mr. Ozawa and his family in terms of religion and language; however, it did not gain him membership to the cohesive and united society promised by assimilation proponents.

Assimilation continues to fail to deliver on its promises of a united society.  When immigrants who are visibly of color are asked to become more like those who reign supreme on Linneaus’s racial hierarchy, they are continued to be asked to shed their identity without being able to shed the racial discrimination they face.  For example, Asian Americans continue to be praised for economically assimilating, being labeled the “model minority;” however, this didn’t stop the hate against the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community when the pandemic hit.   

To be fair, cultural assimilation may in fact create a more homogenous society when race is taken out of the equation.  For instance, when white Europeans immigrated, more Anglicized names, loss of language, and change of food habits often helped blend subsequent generations into the so-called American culture.  Similar religious backgrounds also helped those who were not visibly of color blend.  This continues to be the case for some immigrant groups today.  However, even in these circumstances, the loss of language and other cultural markers also amounted to a loss of cultural identity.  To take away aspects of a person’s cultural identity is to take away aspects of them.  How can it ever be okay to erase a part of someone?

We need to honor the differences immigrant families bring to the country, and we need to learn from each other.  We need to encourage children of immigrants to engage in transcultural acculturation where they (not we) can choose amongst the different characteristics of the cultures that are part of their upbringing, including their heritage and surrounding cultures.  And we need to learn how to respect our immigrant families rather than ask them to erase part of who they are.