Assimilasjon: What It Means for Cultural Identity Today

Assimilasjon is the process by which individuals or groups adopt the language, customs, and values of a dominant culture, often replacing their original cultural identity. Unlike integration, which preserves cultural heritage, assimilation typically involves a one-way cultural shift that can span multiple generations and significantly affect psychological well-being.

What Assimilasjon Actually Means

Assimilasjon refers to the process through which minority groups adopt the characteristics of a dominant culture. The term comes from Latin “assimilare,” meaning “to make similar.”

This process is usually understood as a minority policy that states or governments pursue toward linguistic or cultural minorities to make them as similar as possible to the majority population.

The process works differently than many assume. People often think assimilation happens quickly, but a complete cultural transition typically requires two to three generations. First-generation immigrants might learn the language and adopt surface behaviors. Their children often become bicultural. Third-generation descendants may lose connection to original cultural roots entirely.

Assimilasjon involves more than learning new customs. It affects how people see themselves, who they connect with, and what values they pass to children. The process includes changes in language use, social relationships, cultural practices, self-identification, and economic participation.

Assimilasjon represents a fundamental identity shift, not simply adding new cultural knowledge to existing identity.

How Assimilasjon Differs from Integration

The distinction between assimilasjon and integration matters for both policy and personal outcomes.

Assimilasjon is generally defined as adopting the ways of another culture and fully becoming part of a different society. While assimilasjon seeks to merge different cultures into one, often at the cost of losing individual cultural identities, integration encourages the coexistence and celebration of diverse cultures.

Integration allows people to participate fully in society while preserving cultural heritage. Assimilasjon expects minority groups to abandon distinctive characteristics and conform to majority norms.

Integration preserves cultural roots while enabling social participation. Assimilasjon replaces original identity with dominant culture characteristics.

Types of Assimilasjon and How They Work

Assimilasjon occurs through distinct but interconnected processes. Understanding these types explains why cultural change happens at different speeds.

Structural Assimilasjon involves entering mainstream institutions like schools, workplaces, and government organizations. This type often happens fastest because economic necessity drives participation. When people need jobs or education, they engage with dominant institutions regardless of cultural comfort.

Cultural Assimilasjon represents visible changes in language, dress, food preferences, and daily customs. Language acquisition typically comes first, followed by behavioral adaptations. Second-generation immigrants usually complete cultural assimilasjon faster than their parents.

Identificational Assimilasjon goes deepest. People begin identifying with the dominant group rather than their heritage community. This shift in self-perception often requires multiple generations and creates significant psychological tension.

Different assimilasjon types progress at different rates. You might work in mainstream institutions while maintaining a strong cultural identity. Or you might adopt surface behaviors while keeping deep connections to heritage values.

Structural changes happen faster than identity shifts. Complete assimilasjon across all types rarely occurs in a single generation.

What Drives Assimilasjon

Multiple factors determine how and why assimilasjon occurs. These forces interact in complex ways that vary by individual and context.

Language Barriers create immediate pressure to adapt. People who cannot communicate in the dominant language face limited economic opportunities and social isolation. Children typically acquire new languages faster than parents, creating generational gaps in assimilasjon speed.

Economic Necessity often forces rapid cultural adaptation. When employment requires abandoning visible cultural markers or changing behavioral patterns, financial survival overrides cultural preservation. This pressure affects lower-income groups more severely than those with economic cushions.

Social Acceptance Levels significantly impact assimilasjon experiences. Communities that welcome cultural differences support gradual adaptation. Hostile environments that punish cultural distinctiveness force rapid assimilasjon or complete social withdrawal.

Educational Systems serve as primary cultural transmission centers. Schools that support bilingual education and cultural maintenance slow assimilasjon. Systems that prohibit heritage languages and promote only the dominant culture accelerate identity replacement.

External pressures and internal capabilities combine to determine individual assimilasjon experiences, with no universal timeline or outcome.

The Psychological Cost of Assimilasjon

Assimilasjon creates measurable psychological effects that research has documented extensively.

Acculturative stress produces psychological pressure from culture shock. This stress manifests in decreased physical health, poor decision-making capacity, and workplace performance problems. The severity depends heavily on how individuals navigate cultural adaptation.

Professor Seth Schwartz’s research reveals something surprising: biculturalism leads to higher self-esteem, less anxiety, reduced depression, and better family relationships compared to complete assimilasjon. People who maintain connections to both cultures fare better mentally than those who abandon heritage identity entirely.

Research shows that cultural integration is not a zero-sum game. Immigrants can both assimilate into their host society and retain their cultural identities. Individuals who blend heritage and receiving cultures report higher self-esteem and lower psychological distress than those who separate these cultural streams.

Mental health professionals now recognize that forcing complete assimilasjon can create identity confusion, family conflict, and disconnection from both cultures. Young people particularly struggle when expected to choose between heritage and dominant cultural loyalty.

Maintaining cultural roots while adapting to new environments produces better mental health outcomes than complete cultural replacement.

Historical Examples of Forced Assimilasjon

Understanding assimilasjon requires examining specific cases where governments implemented explicit assimilasjon policies.

Norway’s “Norwegianization” policy targeted the indigenous Sami people and Kven minority from the 1850s through the 1970s. From 1880, the goal was to achieve language shift to Norwegian and complete assimilasjon of the Sami and Kven people. Only the Norwegian language was taught in schools until the end of the 1970s.

The government banned the Sami languages in schools, confiscated land, and pressured people to abandon traditional livelihoods. Children were removed from families and placed in boarding schools where they faced punishment for speaking their native language. Land ownership laws favored those who adopted Norwegian names and language.

Canada, the United States, and Australia implemented similar policies toward indigenous populations. Government policies of assimilation fell out of favor in Australia from the 1970s. These programs produced long-term trauma, language loss, and cultural disruption that affect communities today.

Historical assimilasjon policies often used coercive methods that produced generational trauma rather than willing cultural adaptation.

FAQs About Assimilasjon

What’s the difference between assimilasjon and acculturation?

Assimilasjon involves replacing the original culture with the dominant culture. Acculturation includes various adaptation strategies that can maintain cultural heritage.

Is assimilasjon always voluntary?

No. Political pressures, economic necessity, or social discrimination often force cultural adaptation regardless of individual preferences.

How long does assimilasjon typically take?

Complete assimilasjon usually requires 2-3 generations, though individual aspects like language learning can occur within years.

Does assimilasjon improve economic outcomes?

While assimilasjon often increases economic opportunities, research shows that bicultural competencies provide greater advantages in global markets.