- Scholarship on ethnic groups has shifted from assimilation to how ethnic groups have transported their culture to America.
A new study serves as an example, and highlights a problem with this research. - The scholars argued that Japanese-Americans maintained their ethnicity, even as successive generations integrated. This is debatable.
- The scholars argued that the Japanese-American community maintained itself because it had a strong sense of communal identity.
- A “sense of peoplehood” is vague. Historians should try to figure out specific reasons that communities stayed strong.
Analysis
The first paragraph tells us the point of the passage. The author is going to examine Fugita and O’Brien’s study as a representative example.
Fugita and O’Brien study the Japanese-American community. They conclude that it remained unusually strong even after three generations. This was true even the Japanese managed to assimilate into American society.
Fugita and O’Brien have a theory that a community will stay strong if it has a “sense of peoplehood”.
The author thinks this is too vague. Many studies of American immigrants share the same problem. The studies say that some vague “sense of national consciousness” keeps immigrant communities strong.
The author would like scholars to research the specific factors that allow an immigrant community to maintain its identity.
Note: many wrong answer choices assume that assimilation means a community is weak. But the Japanese example demonstrates that community members can assimilate while the community stays strong.
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