Assimilation and symbolic ethnicity through the class-ethnicity nexus: a study of second-generation Indian immigrants in the U.S.A.

Abstract

ABSTRACT Based on the empirical study of the immigrant Bengali community in the Kansas City U.S.A., the paper examines the assimilation and intergenerational dynamics of second-generation immigrants. The study finds that transnational parents could not socialise their children to retain their ethnic orientation and the second generation are found to be assimilating faster into the American culture. We argue that consumption of ethnic goods and services by the second-generation immigrants does not necessarily imply their adherence to ethnic culture rather it is an act of displaying ‘symbolic ethnicity’. The study further finds that by fashioning themselves as ‘exotic other’ in an era of neo-liberalisation, they are only commodifying their ethnic culture and not stalling the assimilation process. Finally, the study contends that in the racially limited diverse environment of Kansas City, the cultural capital of the middle-class families provides an ideal platform to the second generation to assimilate.