Assimilation: How Post-9/11 Government Tactics Have Hindered Muslims From Socioeconomic Integration

Abstract

The devastating attacks of 9/11 left life-changing impacts on how the world viewed national security. The United States, at its epicenter, formally overhauled its government strategies and approaches in assured attempts to prevent such occurrences ever again. Thus, the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security and the implementation of policies reflected new behaviors towards individuals from certain religious or geographic background. While successfully eliminating the recurrence of terrorist attacks of such scale, these extreme approaches vociferosly affected the United States’ Muslim population —many whom have immigrated in pursuit of the ‘American Dream’— from integrating into society. This paper seeks to establish that post-9/11 policies have perpetuated anti-Muslim bias in the minds of the American people, thus impacting the Muslim population’s ability to integrate into society: measured by sections of Milton Gordon’s assimilation theory. Muslim-Americans are vulnerable to unjust constraints or responsibility for the extremist few, all by a governing body established to serve the interests of all its citizens. Studying the extent these tactics have affected Muslim-Americans highlight limitations of the justice system and reveal calls to action where adequate support should be given. Publicly isolating people ties a negative connotation to their existence, which can cause wider society to disassociate themselves from isolated individuals.