What do you think that Lalami would say about the advantages and disadvantages of changing in order to fit in? If an immigrant chose to fit in by adopting national principles, what might they do? What would you think of that choice? If an immigrant chose to fit in by conforming to national identity, what might they do? What would you think of that choice?
Lalami discusses differences in people’s definitions of assimilation. With this in mind, it is difficult to fully examine the advantages and disadvantages of changing to fit in. This is because assimilating to fit in could mean adopting rules, or national principles, set in place by the government of the new country, completely writing off one’s old countries values and culture, or even just working to coexist with the natives while retaining most of your individuality. Lalami seems to highlight the disadvantages of assimilating, mostly due to the unrealistic expectations of the natives regarding what assimilation looks like. The advantages we discussed for choosing a more Americanized name, such as avoiding exclusion, do not really apply here unless a person completely separates themselves from their previous culture. Even if a person adopts nation principles, they likely will still not be seen as fully assimilated and included. This is because the parts of a person that they change will still be overshadowed by the parts of a person’s identity that they left alone. Lalami also explains a little bit about how some people think that allowing others to incorporate their own culture into America sort of dilutes American culture itself. She introduces this idea when describing the difference between debates regarding assimilating and undocumented immigration. “My seatmate on that airplane was a small-business owner, yet he did not seem worried about Korean-Americans taking business away from him; he seemed more aggrieved that their children studied two languages, or that his community featured store signs and church marquees in an alphabet he could not read. … It should be clear by now that assimilation is primarily about power” (Lalami). People do not want to feel like strangers to their own culture. I think that a person has the right to choose to what degree they want to assimilate into a new culture; however, it should not be an assumed requirement to give up any portion of a person’s identity.
