Abstract
The Other Side of Assimilation by Tomás R. Jiménez offers a new understanding of assimilation as a relational process in which immigrants are not the only ones to adapt to American society but native-borns also change their outlooks, identities, and behaviors in response to the immigrant presence. This reconceptualization makes the book valuable for teaching sociology because it encourages students to critically evaluate the unidirectional assimilation models commonly presented in sociology books. The book moves beyond the immigrant view of assimilation and explores the host-society view of adjustment to the new “normal” life.
The book is set in three highly diverse regions of Silicon Valley: East Palo Alto, Cupertino, and Betressa, San Jose. It draws on in-depth interviews with U.S.-born residents to examine how everyday interactions with immigrants reshape their cultural practices, racial identities, and perceptions of belonging. The primary focus of the book is to provide empirical grounding and offer instructors descriptive and conceptual qualitative analyses for teaching research methods, with a particular emphasis on interviewing and interpretive analysis.
Jiménez structures the book into an introduction, followed by five analytical chapters, and a conclusion. The introduction revisits the classical assimilation theories and highlights the oversight of the changes immigration causes in the host society. He introduces the term “relational assimilation,” defining it as a two-way process. This section is well suited for advanced sociology theory courses, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, in which students may compare this contemporary outlook to canonical assimilation theories (Gordon 1964).
Chapter one, “The (Not-So-Strange) Strangers in Their Midst,” reveals that the intertwined lives in diverse urban centers result in immigrants not being seen as outsiders but as integral parts of the communities’ sociocultural identity. Chapter two, “Salsa and Ketchup,” explains that the constant interactions between established residents and immigrant cultures lead to selective acculturation among native-born Americans. Chapter three, “Spotlight on White, Fade to Black,” explores shifting racial hierarchies in majority-minority contexts. Chapter four, “Living with Difference and Similarity,” explores the perceptions of social cohesion, revealing that shared experiences often override the simple racial divisions. The last chapter, “Living Locally, Thinking Nationally,” connects the micro-level changes to macro-level conceptions of American identity and immigration policy. The conceptual strength of the book is definitely evident, but instructors could assign individual chapters as stand-alone readings; for example, chapter two could be used in the culture section of an immigration course or chapter three in race and ethnicity courses.
The book makes numerous significant conceptual and empirical contributions. Most importantly, the fresh perspective on the two-way process of assimilation challenges classical scholarship and offers a theoretical lens, “relational assimilation,” for understanding the social dynamics of multiethnic societies. Empirically, the qualitative research design is a strength of the book as unheard voices of native-born residents come to the foreground. Moreover, the three distinct local study sites capture the experiences of locals across class and racial lines, thus revealing that the reciprocal framework has broad implications. Moreover, the book is an easy read without sacrificing academic rigor, making it effective for upper-division sociology courses such as Race and Ethnicity, Immigration Studies, and Urban Studies, as well as graduate seminars.
Pedagogically, the book can be paired with active learning exercises to deepen student engagement. For example, instructors might use an applied learning activity that uses structured observation and reflection to help students analyze everyday interactions between immigrants and long-established residents, complementing Jiménez’s concept of relational assimilation by encouraging them to observe and identify how both sides adapt to cultural diversity in real-world settings. Similarly, a film-guided discussion on Welcome to Shelbyville” (Snyder 2011) documents a bidirectional lens on how Somali refugee settlement and Latino newcomers brought change to a small Tennessee town. It also features how white and Black longtime residents navigated these social and economic dynamics and gradually accommodated to the new social context.
Although the book has its strengths, there are some critiques to consider. First, it treats Latinos and Asians as a monolithic category when referring to established or newcomers, ignoring the intragroup diversity and colorism. This overlook leaves the reader hanging on how racial hierarchies play out within the broader Latino and Asian groups. Second, the book focuses on the reactions of established Americans but pays little to no attention to immigrants’ roles in ethnic place-making and cultural visibility that prompt those reactions. Third, whiteness as an ideology and white identity are often conflated in the book, while the power dynamics associated with them are understudied. The book discusses changes in attitudes about what it means to be white in a multicultural society yet fails to explore how both white and nonwhite individuals continue to perpetuate the racial status quo.
The last critique concerns the definition of assimilation as Jimenez stretches this concept to encompass reciprocal experiences by studying changes in the majority group. He highlights that adjustments by established Americans were more superficial, for example, eating ethnic foods and enjoying cultural festivals, and there is no profound shift in identity or status quo. This raises a question of whether relational assimilation leads to any fundamental structural changes in racial politics or whether it is more symbolic in nature, leaving white privilege intact. This ambiguity can serve as a productive class discussion on the boundaries between assimilation, accommodation, and multiculturalism.
Instructors can address these limitations by supplementing the text with additional readings. For example, works on intragroup diversity and colorism (Evelyn Nakano 2009; Telles and Ortiz 2009), which highlight hierarchies based on skin tone, class, and national origin, supplement the overlooked internal stratifications in this book. Similarly, research on ethnic place-making (Appadurai 1996; Levitt and Waters 2002; Li 1998), which demonstrates immigrants’ active shaping of local environments, adds the missing piece of immigrant agency in this book. To enhance discussions of race and power, the courses could incorporate readings from critical race scholars on structural racism and whiteness (Bonilla-Silva 2006). Such additions would highlight the persistence of racial hierarchies across everyday life and institutional contexts (Lipsitz 2006).
Methodologically, the study has limited generalizability. The scope of the research sample and site is restricted to three communities in Silicon Valley, a unique context with an unusually high influx of immigrant population and generally liberal attitudes. The book claims the unfolding of relational assimilation in other American cities, but these cities are not studied directly. This raises a concern that findings from such a majority-minority areas (Alba 2020) might not apply to more homogeneous communities with smaller immigrant populations. Instructors could assign students to compare less diverse and politically polarized communities as case studies, applying the framework to test its broader relevance.
Overall, this book makes an important contribution to migration, urban sociology, and race and ethnic studies by providing a more nuanced understanding of assimilation. It is a timely read for discussions on contemporary immigration policies and multiculturalism. It provides a counternarrative to the present-day political scenario, highlighting adaptability and integration at the micro-level. I highly recommend this book as part of broader instructional packages to those studying migration and race in the twenty-first century, with inclusion of supplemental readings and activities that encourage reflexive thinking about social environments and testing preset assumptions about assimilation.