In today’s globalized society, the questions related to immigration become more and more heated. One of these questions is related to the best ways for immigrants to adapt to the host society. In the following paper, the three forms of adaptation including assimilation, ethnic pluralism, and transnationalism will be compared with the purpose of identifying the most effective one of them.
First, addressing the differences between assimilation, ethnic pluralism, and transnationalism, it should be stated that they are significant. Assimilation is a process of adaptation of cultural values prevailing in the host society by immigrants. When affected by the process of assimilation, immigrants, both males, and females start forgetting about their homeland traditions, customs, and perceptions. Instead, they adopt a new vision of the world that is peculiar for people in the new land. Ethnic pluralism implicates that immigrants continue having their own cultural perceptions in the new land and remain unaffected by the local culture and mentality. Without a doubt, this way of adaptation is very convenient for immigrants because they do not have to put any effort into changing their way of thinking. With regards to transnationalism, which is so common nowadays, it is important to note that this is quite an interesting form of adaptation that has many variations and can be seen as a rather ambiguous matter. Generally, the main difference of this form of adaptation is in the fact that immigrants may continue having their own cultural perceptions as their connections with the motherland are still strong due to family ties, and they still may adopt a new way of thinking under the influence of the ideas and the way of thinking prevailing in the new land.
Secondly, speaking about the similarities between the three forms of adaptation under consideration, it should be stated that they are in the fact that all of them still require considerable changes on the part of immigrants. When an individual appears in a different land, there exists no other choice for the person, but to be affected by the cultural perceptions that are common in the land of immigration. Cultural and mental assimilation of immigrants will occur in any case despite the form of adaptation they will have to go undergo.
Finally, after the analysis of the three forms of adaptation, I would make a conclusion that ethnic pluralism appears to be the best way for immigrants to adapt to the host society. This is so because this form of adaptation requires fewer efforts on the part of an individual than the two other ones. However, this question seems to be contradictory to a certain degree because in every particular case, an immigrant has his or her own way of thinking. I personally think that assimilation and transnationalism are also convenient ways of adaptation because I believe in the cultural fusion in which every society chooses to adopt the best customs and traditions and forget about those that are inappropriate from the point of view of science, psychology, or any other important angle.
In conclusion, the process of adaptation is a difficult process for every particular immigrant. Some immigrants are not able to get accustomed to cultural perceptions common in the host lands and have to return home for this reason. Still, from the three forms of adaptation that have been considered in this paper, ethnic pluralism appears to be the most convenient one because it requires fewer efforts on the part of immigrants.