Paper 1 – Fundamentals of Sociology – Chapter 10 – Social Change in Modern Society
- Sociological theories of social change.
- Development and dependency.
- Agents of social change.
- Education and social change.
- Science, technology and social change.
Assimilation describes the process of social, cultural, and political integration of a minority into a dominant culture and society. Assimilation is the process whereby persons and groups acquire the culture of other group in which they come to live, by adopting its attitudes and values, its patterns of thinking and behaving—in short, its way of life. Assimilation usually involves a gradual change of varying degree. Full assimilation occurs when new members of a society become indistinguishable from native members.
DEFINITION
“The process of mutual cultural diffusion through which persons and groups come to share a common culture is called assimilation.” – Horton and Hunt
FACTORS INFLUENCING ASSIMILATION
According to Gillin and Gillin, factors favouring assimilation are toleration, equal economic opportunity, sympathetic attitude on the part of the dominating group towards the minority group, exposure to the dominant culture, similarity between the cultures of the minority and dominant groups and amalgamation or intermarriage.
On the other hand, factors hindering or retarding assimilation are isolating conditions of life, attitudes of superiority on the part of the dominant group, excessive physiological, cultural and social differences between the groups and persecution of the minority group by the majority group.
IMMIGRANT ASSIMILATION
Immigrant assimilation is one of the most common forms of assimilation. Social scientists rely on four primary benchmarks to assess immigrant assimilation: socioeconomic status, geographic distribution, second language attainment, and intermarriage. Immigrants acquire new customs and attitudes through contact and communication with a new society, while they also introduce some of their own cultural traits to that society.
INTEGRATION
Integration is a two way process where there are cross influences from both the cultures and both change a small bit to accept the minority culture into the majority culture. This is a process that requires acceptance of the laws and ways of the host country by the people of the minority culture without giving up on their own laws and ways. This happens with modification in both the cultures.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN INTEGRATION AND ASSIMILATION
Assimilation is an attempt made by ethnic minorities, to adopt the customs and traditions of the majority community so that they become similar to the majority culture.
Integration is the process whereby ethnic minorities are absorbed into a majority culture.
Integration is taking the minorities into the mainstream so that they get access to the same opportunities that are available to the majority community. Assimilation is a give and take process as both the majority community, as well as minority communities get affected in the process and both become a part of the larger culture.
