Assimilation, Essay Example

From my point of view living and growing up in the Middle East, assimilation inthe cultural sense is practicing culture/language when living in another country until it comes to identify with one’s personal culture. My native country is Kuwait and I am now studying in the United States of America. Everyone is acquainted with the American culture. A twenty-first century sociological evaluation would produce an assimilated American culture due to the vast immigrant population, which has infiltrated a native and purely Europe centric way of life. Essentially, total assimilation happens when new members of society cannot be distinguished culturally from ones who were there before or its indigenous people.

Kuwait geographically is a country in Western Asia and classified as an Arab nation. As such my, religious culture is Muslim.In some aspects of American social life this religion is unacceptable or abhorred. However, relocation meant that somehow with the tensions emerging after 9/11 among Muslim immigrants and American perceptions of them and their religious culture it took some effort towards becoming assimilated as fast as possible for synchronicity with the society. Precisely, for me it was a deliberate exercise in cultural adaptation.

Therefore,when it came to adapting to the ways of a new culture, it was difficult. So far a true assessment as to whether the positives outweigh the negatives, when one assimilates cannot be definitely evaluated. At this point while America is a land where religious freedom is practiced caution had to be exercised in practicing my traditional religion due to subtle apprehension of this type of culture. As such, in looking at what was lost or gained, in my estimation the freedom and joy of practicing my religion without fear was somewhat compromised at the expense of me gaining an American standard education.

A person could form a new identity just to fit in. In my situation I did not, but simply practiced my religious culture without encouraging discussions with anyone regarding this aspect of my social life someone disregard his /her culture just to be accepted then is when assimilation changes the personal identity when attempting to embrace Western culture. For example,the traditional dress style for men is the dishdasha. This is a garment worn at ankle-length. It is specially woven from wool or cotton and has very sentimental value to the culture and regarded an artifact.

From a western perspective this type of garment can only be worn during the summer when it is hot since this style was adapted for the hot and Kuwait climate. While some western dress styles are tolerated among Arab nations, my dress seemed odd initially when coming to America, but I was able to mix the dress styles until a balance was created between western and Kuwaitis, which appeared to be a hybrid dress culture.

Besides, it is not usual that men use head wear in America especially ther type worn by Arab males. Traditionally, a ghutrah headscarf and the agal circlet are worn. Typically, these head wear are used with a gahfiah skullcap underneath for stabilizing the headscarf. Arab women dress modestly covering their bodies thoroughly. Dresses reach the floor. They are calleddaraa’ and for festivity thobe. Women wear a hejab headscarf and a bushiya face veil is used as a attachment. Muslim men/women in America have developed some hybrid style adaptations for changes in climate. It might not really be linking the two cultures but for climatic synchronicity.

Eric Liu’s, account in Notes of a Native Speaker identified with some aspect of my acculturation during the assimilation process into American dress, language and behavior culture. I could not think of myself as being white since people with my skin color in America are considered blackand in some cases treated differently. However, some Liu’s experiences were compatible with mine while others were completely opposite. His focus was on whiteness and how he became different without changing the color of his skin, hair or eyes.

His assimilation was fixed in whiteness, but in my case I was shedding my whiteness and taking on aspects of an ethnic group to which, racially, I did not belong.  In other words, while Liu strived to become whiter, I became less white during my stay in America.  Liu also talks about assimilation in terms of class, and for him, part of that assimilation was “learning the ways of the upper middle class”.

For me, again, my assimilation process took me in precisely the opposite direction. I came from an upper middle class background. Instead, it was learning to appreciate the very impoverished people experiences; those living at the very margins of survival and were always precariously close to tipping over the edge into real, abysmal poverty.  When confronted with this, many of my upper middle class values suddenly seemed, at best, to be naïve and shallow but at worst to be almost grotesquely insensitive to and willful ignorance most of the world’s population was forced to be emerged daily(Liu,2007).

Whenchildren are seen playing naked or only in underwear on a Kuwait street full of broken glass and garbage (this was a frequent sight in some of the neighborhoods where I lived), then, transferred into a society where there are such differences it takes time to assimilate. United States of America is children are well clothe in pants and dresses of their culture. Some are hybrid American. Distinctly, in my situation replacing some of my Arab clothing was not mandatory, but perceived a part of the assimilation process. It was a situation whereby within a short time I accumulated so much garments of my culture and that of the new society. Image having so many out fits that I could not remember purchasing all keeping abreast with the American dress culture.  In many ways, then, my experience of assimilation was an almost completely the inverse to Liu (2007).

Another thing I found different in my experience compared with Liu’s is that he likened his assimilation to “the second leg of a relay race” and commented that, years later, it was as if he had come round the bend and was no longer sure where he was running or why.  Importantly, the difference between his experience and mine was that I do not have my parents living with my in America. My migration is not permanent. As such, it is not expected to be a long journey as in Liu’s (2007) case. Besides, I am not pressured (perceived or otherwise) by my parents to assimilate into American society, because they arenot here. Just the opposite, in fact – my parents hated the fact that I had moved here and spent most of their time begging, bribing or cajoling me to come home(Liu, 2007).

There were some things that Liu wrote about, though, that I could really relate to – that perhaps anyone in a foreign country could relate to. He talks about being perceived as rude by some of his Anglo friends and their families because he was not aware, at first, of the etiquette in American culture. The fact is, when you are living abroad, it is all too easy to do something that is considered rude and have no idea you are even being offensive because you have not learned the subtleties of the culture in which you are now living. For instance, Americans often leave food on their plates at dinner if they cannot eat everything;, throw it out and no one thinks that it is wrong. In Kuwait some people have limited food supply and they value food more. Throwing out food considered very bad knowing that food is not very easy to acquire. This is a part of the American culture that had to be explained to me since throwing out food was considered a waste and will eventually produce poverty (Liu, 2007).

Another thing about Liu’s (2007) poem, which really spoke to me was his admission that   like an amphibian he breached the shore and could not help inhaling the wondrous new atmosphere in this new country. In assessing the acculturation/assimilation culture withinthe American society, it was memorable watching a woman identified from Mayan culture entering   a mall carrying a table on top of her head piled with mangoes, bananas, papayas, and her country’s traditionalfruits. She wearing very colorful handmade clothes of her people and she was like no one I had ever seen before. Interestingly, that this woman did not experience any assimilation because her culture was still distinct fromthe typical American. The site was amazing in an American society, but New York city seems to allow expression of other cultures more freely

The similarities and differences between my experiences with assimilation and Liu’s (2007) are just indicative of the fact that the process of expatriation is different for everyone. It is done for a number of different reasons and goes in a number of different directions, whether that be gaining status in society or giving your status up.  I also think that assimilation really is both a process of gain and one of loss. You do come out intellectually richer for your experience of living abroad, and you gain an understanding of the world that you simply cannot achieve any other way.

However, whether you return to your native country (as I did) or remain permanently in your country of adoption (as Liu did), you find that aspects of your culture and upbringing that you have shed do not so easily return even if you want them to.  Even when I  visit Kuwait and return to the States; I find that my perception of the world has changed forever, and there are certain behaviors (like recreational shopping) that I simply cannot indulge in with the same fervor that I did before I left the country.  I believe now that the greatest danger in going abroad is not the prospect of violence or the picking up some tropical disease, but in not returning home as the same person you were when you left.  But that risk is part of the adventure.

Works cited

Liu, E. Notes from a Native Speaker.  The Accidental Asian.  New York: Random House. 2007. Print.