Migration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Migration - Essay Example The traditional theories of assimilation argued assimilation as an essential part of the upward mobility part of immigrants and hence explain the nature of immigration well (Warner and Srole, 1945). On the other hand, based on the failure of these theories to capture the assimilation process, it is now shown that the traditional theories of assimilation have failed to capture this incompleteness of assimilation and hence the nature of immigrant adaptation (Alba and Nee, 1997, 2003; Rumbaut, 1997etc).In spite of this, some studies show the assimilation theory as still relevant (Greenman and Xie, 2008).The debate remains unsettled. This essay critically evaluates the traditional theories of assimilation and their ability to explain the nature of immigrant adaptation. This essay is organized as follows. Section 2 discusses the historical background underlying the migration debate. Section 3 discusses the theories of assimilation. Section 4 discusses the critiques of the theories of evaluation and evaluates the theories. Section 5 concludes the essay. The debate underlying the immigrant adaptation had its origin from the United States. The number of immigrants to USA slowed down from 1920 to 1965 while with the passing of the 1965 immigration Act, it showed significant rise again. The earlier immigrants before 1920 were mainly Europeans. The experiences with these European immigrants and their children are considered as successful assimilation into the host American society (Alba and Nee, 1997). Since 1965, the immigrants were mainly from Latin America and Asia. There has been widespread debate regarding the economic, social and cultural impact of these new immigrants on the society of America. Whether the experiences of these immigrants and their children were similar to those of the early European immigrants or not have been highly controversial (Alba and Nee 1997, 2003; Bankston and

The Color Purple - Alice Walker Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Color Purple - Alice Walker - Essay Example By the end of the book, Walker imposes the idea that the only way that women can be happy is to be independent of the perceptions of men and the way in which they relate to women. The first way in which Walker presents a boundary between men and women, in which men are not regarded as friendly, is through the point of view that is used with the father. The narrator, Celie, always refers to the men as â€Å"he† and creates a disconnection to the men that are surrounding her in the book. This combines with the perspective toward the narrator’s father, brothers and later toward the relationships that are held. There are several instances where the narrator creates a significant boundary between women and men, specifically which create men as not having a sweet spirit. For instance, in the opening chapter, Walker writes â€Å"He acts like he can’t stand me no more. Say I’m evil an always up to no good. He took my other little baby, a boy this time. But I don’t think he kilt it. I think he sold it to a man and his wife over Monticello†¦ I see him looking at my little sister. She scared. But I say I’ll take care of you. With God help† (Walker, 3). This passage is significant in the point of view from Celie. The first way in which this creates a boundary is through the use of â€Å"he† as a reference to the narrator’s father. Instead of creating an identity that is positive, loving or that can be defined; a boundary is created by the general statement used about the father. The perception then continues with the actions of the father and the statement that he believes his daughter is evil. This immediately creates a perception that Walker believes that men act with behavior that causes difficulties and boundaries for women. The point of view that is given by Celie continues throughout the book to create this same sense of boundary. For instance, most of the