IvanKaramazov
Footballguy
These are strange examples -- people like me would point to Irish and Italian immigration as exactly what we have in mind when we're talking about the "melting pot" thing (assimilation). Nobody today actually views Irish-Americans or Italian-Americans as actual distinct groups. It's weird even typing out the terms.America the people never welcomed immigrants. The melting pot is an ideal not a shared history. Irish and Italians that came in the early 1900s were not welcomed. They were too Catholic, too criminal. We were not a melting pot on the trail of tears. We were not a melting pot during the Reconstruction. We were not a melting pot when we created the Chinese exclusion act. But the words were always there in the DoI, all men are created equal. Maybe I value those ideals more than you do, even if we continue to struggle to live up to them.
First generation immigrants, sure. They may or may not speak English, they don't really know our culture, they don't have any of the traditional support structures (like extended family) in place that make life easier for the rest of us. In many cases, but certainly not all, they're just trying to get by, and those folks may not fully assimilate. No problem. Their kids will, and their grandkids certainly will. That's totally fine. It doesn't have to be something that happens overnight.