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. 1997 Winter;31(4):923-60.

Assimilation and its discontents: between rhetoric and reality

  • PMID: 12293210

Assimilation and its discontents: between rhetoric and reality

R G Rumbaut. Int Migr Rev. 1997 Winter.

Abstract

"It is in [the] conceptual interstices between theory, rhetoric, and reality that paradoxes (or at least what may appear as paradoxes) emerge. By focusing on paradoxes--on evidence that contradicts orthodox expectations and points instead to assimilation's discontents--the aim of this article is to test empirically the conception of assimilation as a linear process leading to improvements in immigrant outcomes over time and generation in the United States, to unmask underlying pre-theoretical ethnocentric pretensions, and to identify areas in need of conceptual, analytical and theoretical refinement. It is precisely through the examination of paradoxical cases--in effect, deviant case analyses--that fruitful reformulations can be stimulated, considered, and advanced."

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