Back Story Podcast: The Melting Pot: Americans and Assimilation

Immigrant assimilation have been in the news in recent years.  Donald Trump has claimed that Muslim immigrants fail to assimilate. More generally, he said during the 2016 presidential campaign that “not everyone who seeks to join our country will be able to successfully assimilate” and called for new immigrants to pass an “ideological certification to make sure that those we are admitting to our country share our values and love our people.” In one Republican debate, Trump declared that “we have a country where, to assimilate, you have to speak English … This is a country where we speak English, not Spanish.”

The BackStory podcast looks at what does it mean to be an American.  It explores 19th-century notions of who could become an American and the ways that immigrants were expected to change. It also discusses how much room there was for a “hyphenated” American identity in the past and if there is any room for it today. The discussion also looks at Israel Zangwill’s iconic play “The Melting Pot” (1916).

KJ