TOWARD A RECONCILIATION OF ASSIMILATION AND PLURALISM - THE INTERPLAYOF ACCULTURATION AND ETHNIC RETENTION

The reconciliation between ''assimilation'' and ''pluralism'' is sough t to help prevent further polarization among immigration researchers a nd is based mainly on two arguments. First, if assimilation and accult uration are distinguished, acculturation has proceeded more quickly th an assimilation in both ''old'' and ''new'' immigrations. This reconci les traditional assimilationist theory with current pluralist - or eth nic retention - theory, which admits that acculturation (and accommoda tion) are occurring, but without assimilation. Second, the reconciliat ion can also be advanced by the recognition that the researchers of th e old and new immigrations have studied different generations of newco mers and have approached their research with ''outsider'' and ''inside r'' values, respectively.