Current Events Critical Thinking Paper with Sociological Analysis

Current Events with Sociological Analysis
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Immigrants come to resemble native-born Americans over time, but integration not always a link. National Academy of Sciences. September 21, 2015
Sociological concepts in conjunction with the theories, basically intends to outline the development of society, cultures and relation aspects. However, the theoretical explanation develops an insight in the context of what is happening in the society. This paper critically discusses and analyzes the above article which features the integration of immigrants in the US society. In addition, the paper develops an insight of how the immigrants adopt life in US and the gradual improvement in their life as a result. Moreover, this positive impact outlined in the article will further be critically analyzed based on the ground of sociological concepts and theories.
The article is based on a research report conducted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, hence it outlines how the lives of the immigrants and their descendants who settled in the United States have gradually improved compared to the lives of the native-born Americans. On the other hand, the article further depicts that, the aspects of improvement in the lives of the immigrants are based in area such as education attainment, income, language ability and occupational distribution. On a further context, the research conducted reports a comparison between the life of a native-born American and that of an immigrant.

Based on health aspect, it was reported that the likelihood of an immigrant contracting or dying from certain diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and chronic is less compared to native-born Americans. Other aspects that were noted less likely to affect the immigrants compared to the native-born American include infant mortality, obesity rate and life expectancy. However, the well-being of the immigrants declines over time and generation as a result of their health status mixing with that of the native-born Americans hence adapting similar life status. Aspects such as crime rates, violence, divorce rates and out-of-wedlock birth rates are minimal in immigrants though they change over time and generations. Moreover, it was identified that the other outcome measures of immigrants well-being improves as they become settled and integrated in U.S society. For instance, in education aspect, immigrant’s children perform very well in school and at least one-quarter of them attains college education or more. Research further show that current immigrants learn English Language at a faster rate than the earlier immigrants. On employment and earning aspect the rate of employment declines over change in immigrants generations where by men are the highly employed compared to women. However, immigrant’s men without education are highly employed in unskilled jobs compared to native-born men thus as a result immigrants are affected by poverty compared to native-born Americans. Henslin, J. M, (2014)
Various sociological concepts may correlate in the context of this article, for instance social interaction is a sociological concept which reflects how people interact with each other based on perceptions of their different position in the society. Dillon, M. (2010). In this case, the interaction of the immigrants with that of the native-born Americans is fruitful based on the ground that, the well-being livelihood of the immigrants improves gradually in spite of being in a foreign country. According to a theoretical perspective, functionality theory mainly views society as a interconnected system whereby each person in the society contributes to the stability of the society in whole. Functionalism perspective is embraced in this case whereby the government of United States allows immigrants to get education in their institutions and also offers employment regardless of being foreigners. However, the sociological concept of accommodation which allows integration of immigrant’s children and the native-born Americans in social institutions. Therefore, as a result both the native-born Americans and the immigrants will pay taxes as the government provides education facility; this clearly indicates that stability of the society in whole is contributed by all the members of the society. On the other hand, the improvement of some of the life aspects of the immigrants and their descendants is as a result of the social role concept which is practiced by the whole society.
On the contrary, symbolic interaction theory is a sociological perspective which is clearly represented in the article when the immigrant’s social behavior changes gradually over time in generations. This is characterized by a social interaction concept which underlies in this symbolic interaction perspective theory. For instance, research study reports that immigrants are less likely to die from cardiovascular, all cancers and chronic diseases unlike the native-born Americans but with time this well-being deteriorate due to the cause of their health converging with that of the native-born Americans. This is caused by the concept of social interaction which is a factor that influenced how the native-born Americans responded to the immigrants. The symbolic interaction perspective overrides the well-being of the community that is highly concentrated with immigrants in the sense that, the neighborhood community that consist the non-immigrant population likely has high crime and violence rate unlike the former community. Therefore, over a period of time the community which is highly concentrated with immigrants increases the crimes and violence rate due to this aspect of symbolic interaction perspective. Andersen & Taylor (2008).
Feminism theoretical perspective is clearly appears on the article whereby employment opportunities is less on the immigrants both men and women compared to the native-born Americans. This perspective normally views the society as a platform with gender inequality. For instance, research study reported on the article testifies that the percentage of immigrant men employed is higher than that of the women and consequently the percentage declines with time. In broad terms, this state of employment of women being less in the labor is an attribute of discrimination of women and less represented in the society. On the other hand, the aspect of education, earnings and poverty level between the immigrants and the native-born Americans is subjected to bureaucratic perspective and concept of sociology whereby this perspective governs the division of labor and hierarchy ( Henslin, J. M.,2014 pg.50). It is seen that the immigrants men with low level of education are more employed compared to the native-born men and is due that unskilled jobs are segregated for those with low level of education in spite that the native-born Americans are unwilling to take this jobs.
In conclusion, the sociological concepts and theories give sociology students a cognitive thinking and understanding of the social interactions of peoples of different cultures, race and ethnicity. In addition, the sociological perspectives discussed on this paper enable the students to relate the theoretical concepts of sociology and its applications in society.The functionality theory which outlines how part of the society play parts in contributing to stabilization of the society in whole educates that a society is made up of different kind of people with different capabilities that put together their effort to build a strong society. On the other hand, symbolic theory in conjunction with social interactions educates how good interaction will influence foreigners to adapt new cultures and norms comfortably. Lastly, an understanding of society is aided by the philosophy of sociological theory perspectives and concepts.References
National Academy of Sciences. (2015, September 21). Immigrants come to resemble native-born Americans over time, but integration not always link. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 9, 2015 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150921151511.htm
Henslin, J. M. (2014). Sociology: A down-to-earth approach, global edition. S.l.: Pearson Education Limited
Andersen, M. L., & Taylor, H. F. (2008). Sociology: Understanding a diverse society. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning. 21-22
Dillon, M. (2010). Introduction to sociological theory: Theorists, concepts, and their applicability to the twenty-first century. Chichester, U.K: Wiley-Blackwell