Quote:
Originally Posted by Lieneke
First generation peoples generally discard their culture in favour of the culture of their adopted country (historically speaking), and second generation peoples are assimilated to the extent that their grandparent's culture is nearly impossible to detect.
Is the suggestion that immigrants from Africa are different from all other immigrants, and that they would have preserved their culture for several generations except for having their culture beaten out of them?
Is it a good thing when immigrants do not assimilate? Wouldn't that be like immigrants from, say, Iraq transplanting their culture to a district in Paris and expecting Parisians to tolerate little-Iraq in the middle of France?
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Judging by the marks that many of the different cultures have left in the U.S., this is untrue. This country would not have the myriad of influences that it does if people simply discarded their cultures.
Are you a first generation American? I am and grew up around plenty first generation Americans and the majority of us embrace both cultures. Discarding our cultural backgrounds would be a disgrace.
If you are familiar with African immigrants and many other immigrants such as South Asians, East Asians etc, there is much cultural preservation among all of them. So yes, they certainly would have preserved their cultures as long as possible. In actuality, it is unlikely that the majority would have even been in this country.
Assimilation happens over time. It differs depending on the family. If the immigrant generation came over younger or older. If they frequently go back home. If, as a number Africans immigrants do, they take their first generation children home for a few years in order to immerse them in their cultural background etc. It really depends.