Political Participation Immigrants vote less often than native-born Americans, because many have not yet become citizens through the naturalization process. Choosing to become a citizen is one of the clearest signals of assimilation immigrants can convey. One could look at the slight decline in naturalization rates and read it as an indicator of increased pluralism. On the other hand, the similarity in rates for 1920 and 1990 seems remarkable given the greater diversity among recent immigrants and the changing political climate. Most Americans prefer assimilation to pluralism when it comes to political issues.
People seem to practice what they preach.
African Americans will represent 14 percent of the population, and the Asian contingent will have risen from three to 10 percent. The decision to allow multiple racial designations was the result of intense debate among census statisticians, politicians and the public. It indicates a shift toward racial assimilation, and raises the possibility that previously contentious racial distinctions may eventually disappear. How Latino Immigration Is Transforming America , proposes that our current vocabulary of race is inadequate because Latinos and Asians fall outside a world in which people are categorized as insiders or outsiders depending on whether they are white or black. Future debates about assimilation versus pluralism will sound very different as distinctions by race and ethnicity fade.