9 Tips on How Can an Immigrant Adapt to American Society

Immigration is a prominent part of the DNA of America. However, concerns still exist about the ability of immigrants to integrate into American society.

Strong labor market and high-quality education

Although integration entails uncomfortable adjustments among them, so far immigrant integration in the United States has occurred usually without policy intervention. Instead, it’s mostly relying on a strong labor market as well as high-quality public education.

The previous immigrants incorporated well into the mainstream life of the United States, and an examination of the most recent inflow of immigrants showed that they are integrating just as good as previous inflow.

Five indicators of full integration

This has been based on five indicators: social interaction, residential locale, political participation, socioeconomic attainment, and language proficiency.

Full integration into the economy and society of the United States generally takes more than one generation, with children reliably outperforming the first generation in occupational status, homeownership, educational attainment, and wealth. Residential segregation also decreases between immigrants and their children, and rates of intermarriage between racial and ethnic groups increase.

In addition, language proficiency improves dramatically, too. While proceeding steadily, progress among different groups of immigrants in America is highly uneven, and the size of the population, which is unauthorized, continues to be a barrier to full economic, social, and political integration.

In addition, the current state of the weakened economy of the United States will remain an area of concern in the following years if the present laissez-faire integration approach is maintained.

How can an immigrant adapt to American society?

But, in the current state, is there a way in which an immigrant can adapt to American society? The short answer is yes. Here are nine tips on how to do exactly that.

1. Never go out to be with people of your own culture.
2. Only speak your native language at home and nowhere else.
3. From the first day ask other people to correct you in the use of the English language and demonstrate appreciation for their willingness.
4. Demonstrate curiosity and don’t be shy about telling people that you need their help to understand the culture.
5. Don’t avoid any topic of conversation, even religion, and politics, but be careful not to create animosity if you don’t agree with other people who you are talking to.
6. When you are at work, try to do all tasks which could lead to working with people you didn’t work with before.
7. Sometimes, you may feel that there is a lack of interest or animosity from the interlocutor, but that just means that people are different.
8. Immerse yourself in all the activities you can. Go to baseball games, play golf, watch hockey games, etc. Every activity presents an opportunity to interact and learn more about the culture of the United States.
9. Bring the positive things from your own culture to the conversations, because every culture has something interesting. Americans are curious about why so many people come to the United States and some are in awe because they would probably never do something similar.