Assimilation of Ethnic Groups According Thesis

" Not only did they give up traditional clothing, but they slowly and irreversibly adopted American traditions related to the wedding ceremonies and religious and national holydays. They still celebrated their holydays according to the religious calendar, but in a more discreet way. They encountered difficulties in processing the changes they were more or less forced to adopt by the new living style, but these were not very violent from a psychological point-of-view. They proved to be able to understand that differences did not necessarily mean a negative approach and the diversity they met every step of they way convinced them of the positive effects of intercultural change and being open minded. As Galitzi cites another Romanian pondering the effects of change in tradition, especially from the religious point-of-view, a men who came from a country where his parents and grandparents taught him that he would go to Hell if he dared work on a Christian Holyday, he comes to a wise conclusion: "Sometimes I think I am getting to be a heathen.But then I see so many churches here and so many different ways of being a Christian that I say: well! those people who have more learning than myself must know better, when they work on Saints' days instead of going to church."

The Romanians were fully assimilated in the U.S. without loosing their values and need to teach their children some things about their parents or grandparents' language and culture. They merged their own cultural heritage with that of the adopting country and managed to fit in almost perfectly.

Works Cited

Galitzi, Christine Avghi. A Study of Assimilation among the Roumanians in the United States. New York: Columbia University Press, 1929. Questia. 2 Aug. 2008 http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=8855336.

Romanian Communities. Romanian-American Network, Inc. Copyright © 2004 Ro-Am.net. Retrieved Aug 2, 2008 at http://www.ro-am.net/index.php?page=ro-am-communities#Anchor-44685

Galitzi, C.A. A Study of Assimilation among the Roumanians in the United States. p. 136

Idem.p 137.....