Our Assimilation into the U.S.

Welcome back to my blog! Today, we are going to talk about my family’s assimilation into the United States once they arrived. This proved to be particularly difficult as my great great grandfather is who came over, so all of the facts about his arrival and acceptance have been lost. However, based on some of the information I was able to dig up, I definitely can apply it to the theories of incorporation.

For my great great grandfather, Geza, my family members described his exit of Hungary as simple, and for wanting to experience the typical American Dream of wanting a better way of life. While this is unknown to be true or not, his exit and journey to the United States seemed to be simple and well-planned. Geza had emigrated to Italy in order to take a boat to the United States where he docked at Ellis Island in New York City. Based on what I have been told by family members, much of my family was believed to have  settled within the same area: Lansdale, Pennsylvania. My family presumes that they chose Pennsylvania because they were farmers, and PA had many farming opportunities and also was not a far distance to travel from New York. My mother disclosed that Geza and his wife were very well-educated and spoke very good English. This would aid in their exit as they spoke the native language, and had a sense of human capital since they were well-educated. These two factors made it easier for my family to leave Hungary as they had the means to do so. Their race also played a role in their exit as they identified as white.

In terms of my family’s reception in America, it seems as though they were successful in this area as well. Since it is believed that many of my family members from Hungary came to America around the same time, they had created their own co-ethnic community which allotted for them to have an easier reception into the United States since they had a community to fall back on as another support system. Geza may have struggled in his reception as he did not gain citizenship until roughly seventeen years after being in the U.S. My family members are unaware if this affected his reception into our country, but it could have been a factor. Lastly, since Geza’s reception was relatively successful, he did not suffer a strain in his relationships with his children, thus he was able to remain as the adult-figure. Sometimes when individuals migrate to the U.S., the parents rely on the children as they assimilate faster than the parents, changing the parent-child dynamic. If this occurs, children may find themselves in downward assimilation. However, since this relationship was not reversed, Geza’s children experienced mostly upward assimilation.

For Geza, he experienced upward assimilation combined with biculturalism as he continued to speak his native language, as well as having a community base. My family members do not know if Geza’s children spoke Hungarian, however, my grandfather does not. This suggests that after Geza arrived here, our family experienced mostly upward assimilation as they moved away from their cultural roots. It is considered upward assimilation because through the generations, we have received higher education and have been a part of the middle or upper-middle class. I mentioned prior that Geza was a successful farmer and had this occupation for his entire life. My grandfather also was considered a blue-collar worker as he was a carpenter. My mom, along with her siblings, were a mix of blue-collar and college-educated individuals. This shows that my family was able to continue it’s success in America as they obtained sustainable jobs as well as received education.

Today, my grandparents, mother, aunts, uncles, siblings, and myself ethically identify as American and racially identify as white. If someone were to ask us what our nationality is, we would then respond with Hungarian. However, we engage in symbolic ethnicity which is described by Waters. My family does not celebrate Hungarian holidays, nor do we speak the language. However, we do cook and eat foods from Hungarian culture from recipes that have been passed down from my great grandparents. These foods include: pot-pie (not actual pie, this form has noodles), strudel, and haluski (stuffed cabbage). While we enjoy these foods and recipes from our heritage, this is completely voluntary. We are able to engage in these customs and activities without really understanding what it may be like to be a Hungarian. This is what Waters describes as being the costs of living in a costless society. There is not much variation within my family as we all are pretty Americanized. Since my family is so Americanized, I think this explains why we do not experience much variation form one another because we have come to realize that we are more American than we are Hungarian as our roots to the culture are essentially non-existent, minus the few dishes we continue to enjoy today.