Reinventing The Melting Pot By Jamar Jacoby Summary

Immigration has always been a part of American culture, in fact, it is the basis of how our country was formed. Immigration, both legal and illegal, has become a key focal point in today’s society- especially with presidential elections looming in the near future. In a collection of essays titled “Reinventing the Melting Pot: The New Immigrant and What It Means to Be American,” Jamar Jacoby has a piece titled “The New Immigrants and the Issue of Assimilation” published in 2004. In her piece she creates an argument that although beneficial to our country, immigration has a pessimistic aura. She argues that immigrants from developing countries are entering the United States where many will be forced to spend their lives at the bottom of the economy, and where their assimilation feels forced. Jacoby’s purpose for writing this piece is to make readers aware that Americans are the problem with immigration and assimilation- not the immigrants. Jacoby provides various amounts of uncited statistics, making her claims appear irresponsible and heavily biased …show more content…
Without farther study, or evidence, readers should not be made to believe that most people associate the word “assimilation” with the year 1950, whose ideals are sixty-six years old. Jacoby (2004) makes her opinion on assimilation clear when she states, “As for the melting pot, if anything, that seems even more threatening: who wants to be melted down, after all- for the sake of national unity or anything else?” (p. 423). This quotation creates the feeling that individualism is far more important than the unity of the country to the author. Although individualism is an extremely important concept, it is crucial to have national unity in a country as large as the Unites States. It is more than possible to have national unity, and individualism existing at the same