Zhou Min's Research On The Social Adaptation Of Immigrants

Zhou Min is an American Chinese sociology scholar.Her academic focus is on immigration sociology,urban sociology and other subjects.The main research topics include the immigrants from the United States,the growth and education of the two generation of new immigrants.The theory of social adaptation of immigrants in the United States has undergone a transformation from "classical assimilation theory" to "Cultural Pluralism"."Classical assimilation theory" mostly regards the process of social adaptation of immigrants as a passive process dominated by the government of the country of immigration.The way to adapt to society is for immigrants to learn and accept the culture and values of the countries of immigration.Later,the middle-class intellectuals in the United States gradually realized the value of the culture of their home countries and allowed them to preserve the culture of their home countries.Under this premise,they gradually adapt to American society,so there is a theory of social adaptation dominated by " Cultural Pluralism." The core of this theory lies in the belief that the culture of the immigrant’s home country is valuable.It can help immigrants to complete social adaptation in the country of immigration.Zhou Min as one of the “Cultural Pluralism " supporters,and the American sociologist Alejandro Ports in the last century in 1980 s and 1990 s jointly proposed the "segmented assimilation theory",this theory pays attention to immigrants in adapting to the society in a economic and autonomic way.According to the "segmented assimilation theory",When the immigration economic level and the host country middle class economic level are equal,they completed the social adaptation.In addition to the classical assimilation theory,this theory provides a social adaptation path for immigrants to accumulate their economic capacity through ethnic characteristics,and points out that,not all immigrants are able to complete the social adaptation to the country of immigration,and eventually these immigrants will enter the bottom of the society of the country of immigration and be excluded from the mainstream society.Alejandro Ports believes that the ethnic characteristics of the immigrant’s home country can play a positive role in social adaptation.Zhou Min put the abstract "ethnic characteristics" into practice in the three aspects of "social capital","economic capital" and "human capital" within the ethnic group.She also pointed out in particular that in the process of accumulating economic capital,Need above three big capital the common action.For first generation of immigrants,such as a rich social capital isconducive to economic capital accumulation,economic level;for the second generation of immigrants,they hope that through the accumulation of human capital to promote economic capital accumulation.Among the three major capital,social capital plays a vital role.This provides new ideas and channels for the social adaptation of immigrants,especially the two generation immigrants,in the host country.Zhou Min,in terms of research methods,Influenced by Robert King Merton’s " Theories of middle range," Merton first presented the stories of middle range in his book Social Theory and Social structure in 1949 Theories of middle range theory is neither a macro nor a micro theory.Neither the generality of the problem nor the conclusion obtained from the perspective of empirical research,but the combination of macro and micro,and the combination of theory and practice.Therefore,after Zhou Min put forward the “segmented Assimilation theory ”,she investigated a lot of non-Asian immigrants,Chinese,Vietnamese even Korean immigrants in the United States.Based on a large number of empirical data,the connotation of " segmented Assimilation theory " and some hypotheses have been demonstrated and supplemented.The “segmented assimilation theory” takes economy as the core model of social adaptation and social capital.The economic accumulation path of the interaction of human capital and economic capital has certain reference and enlightenment significance for Chinese cities to solve the problem of urban adaptation of migrant workers and their children.