cultural assimilation

Adopting dominant customs

Cultural assimilation is the process by which individuals or groups from one culture adopt the customs, values, language, and behaviors of another, typically dominant culture.

The term often describes what happens to immigrants over generations as they integrate into a new society, sometimes losing distinctive features of their heritage culture.

Assimilation can be voluntary or coerced, and the word carries different connotations depending on context—celebrated as integration or criticized as erasure of cultural identity.

integration

melting pot

Cultural fusion place

social cohesion · mainstreaming · inclusion · participation · belonging · civic engagement · social mobility · acceptance · coexistence · blending

pluralism

salad bowl

Dish for tossed greens

accommodation · tolerance · bicultural · transnational

acculturation

enculturation

Acquiring cultural norms unconsciously

naturalization · language acquisition · behavioral change · habit formation · lifestyle change · resocialization · code-switching

identity

ethnic identity

Belonging to ancestral group

generational divide · dual identity · self-concept · belonging · ancestral traditions · family customs · ethnic pride · identity crisis · rootlessness · nostalgia

homogenization

uniformity

State of being identical

westernization · anglicization · hegemony · boarding schools · ethnocide · marginalization · whitewashing

Categories
Opposites
cultural identity maintenance

cultural assimilationcultural preservation

Protecting community traditions and artifacts

heritage preservation · cultural resistance · cultural reclamation · hyphenated identity

social integration model

cultural assimilationmulticulturalism

Coexistence of diverse traditions

cultural preservation · separatism · segregation · cultural isolation · ethnic enclave

cultural influence direction

cultural assimilationcultural resistance

Opposing mainstream through heritage

cultural nationalism · nativism · decolonization · ethnocentrism · traditionalism

Family

culture, cultural, assimilate, integration, assimilation, culturally, assimilated, acculturation, assimilating

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