ABSTRACT
Assimilation remains the major path into the mainstream of American life for immigrants and their descendants. The process has been well documented, and there is a strong case to be made that assimilation is a predictable, large-scale outcome of mass immigration to the United States. Despite episodes of pressure for Americanization from political actors, assimilation has been a bottom-up process of cultural and social change. The changes to immigrant groups are frequently accompanied by shifts in the mainstream to which they are assimilating: Emblematic of the latter is the eventual attainment by Catholicism and Judaism of the status of charter religions, as opposed to incorporation in the form of conversion to Protestantism, the previous mainstream religion (Alba 2009).
