Question

How did the desire of immigrants to assimilate conflict with the need to preserve some aspects of their own culture?

Answer 1

Answer:

It can be difficult for immigrants to preserve aspects of their own culture because of the pressures to assimilate.

Explanation:

Assimilation is the process that immigrants and other populations that are culturally and ethnically different from mainstream society undergo when they start to adopt the mainstream values and practices of the host culture. Examples in the United States can be when immigrants from the late 1800s from Southern Europe moved to American cities like New York or Boston and began to adopt American patterns of life like living in smaller nuclear family units and learning English. Other examples of assimilation are evident in what Native American populations experienced especially with the Indian Residential Schools that removed children from their families and communities and sought to teach them more mainstream values, academic subjects, and the English language. It can be hard to preserve some aspects of their own culture that may be in conflict with mainstream society practices like living in a nuclear family, full time employment, speaking English, and wearing Western forms of clothing and listening to Western forms of music.