ASSIMILATION

the process whereby individuals or groups of differing ethnic heritage are absorbed into the dominant culture of a society. Usually they are immigrants or hitherto isolated minorities who, through contact and participation in the larger culture, gradually give up most of their former culture traits and take on the new traits to such a degree that socially they become indistinguishable from other members of the society. Assimilation does not denote racial or other biological fusion, though such fusion may be related. Complete assimilation rarely occurs, as evidenced, for example, by the great diversity of local and regional cultures in Europe, despite centuries of conquest and recurrent attempts to force assimilation. There have, nonetheless, been some notable instances of assimilation, particularly in the United States, the so-called melting pot of ethnic groups. Millions of European immigrants to the United States, through relocation, the influences of the public-school systems, and other forces in American life, became almost completely assimilated within two or three generations.