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To Be an American: Immigration, Hyphenation, and Incorporation
Author(s) -
Deaux Kay
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.618
H-Index - 122
eISSN - 1540-4560
pISSN - 0022-4537
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-4560.2008.00596.x
Subject(s) - immigration , perspective (graphical) , identity (music) , observer (physics) , sociology , psychology , political science , social psychology , epistemology , law , computer science , philosophy , artificial intelligence , physics , quantum mechanics , aesthetics
Central to many immigration debates in the United States, past and present, are questions about what it means to be an American. In this article, I address three forms of this question: (a) What is an immigrant? (b) What is an American? and (c) What is a hyphenated American. Answers to these questions can vary, depending upon whether one is taking the perspective of the observer/host or of the immigrant himself or herself. Data suggest that neither unidimensionality nor simple dichotomy are appropriate frames for analyzing national identity.