Beyond assimilation and pluralism; syncretic sociocultural adaptation of Korean immigrants in the US

Two traditional theories of adaptation of immigrants in the United States, assimilation and pluralism, are based on the assumption that the two processes, Americanization and ethnic attachment, are mutually exclusive. Such an assumption of mutual exclusiveness or zero‐sum model limits the utility of the two theories. A conceptual model is presented in this article which includes an additive mode of adaptation based on the idea of non‐exclusive‐ness between the two processes. Korean immigrants’ social and cultural adaptation has been tested with the model. Data were collected through interviewing 622 Korean adult (20 years old or more) immigrants residing in the Chicago area in 1986. The data empirically confirm the additive mode of adaptation in addition to assimilative replacement and pluralistic ethnic attachment. Theoretical implications of various modes of adaptation observed from this study are discussed.