ABSTRACT
Beginning with the work of the Chicago School of sociology, researchers have long suggested that immigrants would slowly assimilate to American culture and structure over time. Scholars argued that, with each successive generation and each passing decade, migrants would gradually take on American ways of life and shed elements of their ethnic heritage, traditions, and identity. Although it has been sharply critiqued by more contemporary scholars, this “classical model” of assimilation became the dominant vision of immigrant adaptation for nearly half a century. The current chapter provides a review of the classical assimilation model, tracing the history of its development and outlining its core assumptions and claims. This chapter then describes more recent critiques of the classic assimilation model, highlighting demographic shifts and theoretical developments that raise questions about the validity of this once iconic portrayal of the immigrant experience.
