Posted by
flagwaver on Thursday, February 22, 2007 9:30:11 PM
Back a few years ago there was a Star Trek spinoff show that I loved, Star Trek: The Next Generation. It had some great characters, Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Wesley Crusher, Warf the Klingon, and Commander Data; and it had one very memorable alien 'enemy' called The Borg.
The Borg was an organism that invaded worlds and assimilated every member of the invaded race that could be captured into it. The Borg had one consciousness, was basically one organism made up of many living parts. In one episode The Borg managed to capture and assimilate Captain Picard who was only able to escape with the help of a 'part' of the Borg, a young lady called Seven of Nine ( Seven for short). Seven had no independent thought or freedom as she had been a part of the Borg for her whole life and had to learn how to be free.
I bring this up in the context of some of us insisting that new immigrants must assimilate the way that immigrants in the past did. But I don't believe that immigrants of the past assimilated, I think they integrated. Some may see this as an insignificant play on words, but I believe that words have meanings that carry real power, so we must use them wisely.
When you say that a person or group must assimilate, it is almost like asking them to commit cultural suicide. When you ask them to assimilate, what you are really doing is asking them to give up everything about them that makes them who they are as a group. That may be the reason that so many new immigrants are unwilling to assimilate, because they feel as though they are being asked to stop being themselves and become someone else.
While it is not unreasonable to ask new member of American society to adopt the language and to learn the history of their new home, it is unreasonable to tell them that it is somehow wrong to hold on to their ethnic identity. America has never honestly asked newcomers to assimilate, it has always asked them to integrate.
When newcomers integrate, they become a part of the whole without being asked to deny who they are. They are asked to become one of us, and to add their special flavor to the American melting pot. That is what makes us special, the fact that we can absorb newcomers, add their unique viewpoints and cultural traditions to ours, and to make it American. Just look at a place like Louisiana with its diverse population, different language patterns, and the like. While there are differences in the way people talk, or where they go to church ( if at all) they are still Americans.
I think we should continue to encourage our new citizens to integrate with us and add their dash of spice to America and leave the language of assimilation out of it. We want them to be unique individuals...not Seven of Nine.