Dictionary

assimilationist en · ADJ

Etymology

Etymology tree English assimilation Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íd͏̌d͏̌ō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō) Proto-Hellenic *-tās Ancient Greek -τής (-tḗs) Ancient Greek -ῐστής (-ĭstḗs)bor. Latin -istader. Old French -istebor. Middle English -ist English -ist English assimilationist From assimilation + -ist.

Meanings

1. Of or pertaining to assimilationism; promoting or advocating assimilationism.
   • Although there have been many attempts throughout history by the state to assist Maori, many government policies have been paternalistic and assimilationist in nature. 2012, Robert Consedine, Joana Consedine, Healing Our History, page 22:
   • Shortly after Chiang Kaishek came to power, however, the GMD^([Guomindang]) once again withdrew its support for self-determination and pursued a more assimilationist strategy. 2000, Katherine Palmer Kaup, Creating the Zhuang: Ethnic Politics in China, page 62:
   • At times, the assimilationist paradigm has facilitated the physical dispossession of Native lands and the suppression or eradication of Native institutions, culture, and identity by the political branches of the federal government. 2024 September 30, Michael Doran, “EXCEPTIONALISM AND ASSIMILATIONISM IN FEDERAL INDIAN LAW”, in Stanford Law School, volume 20, number 2, page 267, archived from the original on 24 Feb 2025:
   • SCP^([Social and Cultural Planning Office of the Netherlands]) was also more explicitly involved in advocating a more assimilationist approach in this period. 2011, Peter Scholten, Framing Immigrant Integration: Dutch Research-Policy Dialogues in Comparative Perspective, page 187:
   • I wonder: if it had not been for GCN, would I now be the one who settles for the semi-closeted, factionalized world that Bay Windows and its ilk define as Shangri-la? Perhaps. What is certain, however, is that you have never jettisoned concern fror anybody for the sake of popularity and (gulp) assimilationist marketability. 1990 December 9, Ed Fendor, “The Promised Land”, in Gay Community News, volume 18, number 21, page 4:
   • To an extent, reformers – such as the Vietnamese and Tunisian constitutionalists or the Antilleans and Malagasies of the LFADCIM^([French League for the Attainment of the Rights of Citizens of the Natives of Madagascar]) – were more assimilationist than radicals in the sense that they demanded an extension of French citizenship rights and of naturalization. 2015, Michael Goebel, Anti-Imperial Metropolis: Interwar Paris and the Seeds of Third World Nationalism, page 224:

Forms

Deriveds

antiassimilationist

Relateds

multiculturalist · pluralist

Synonyms

integrationist

Translations (1)

pl asymilatorski (Translations)

assimilationist en · NOUN

Etymology

Etymology tree English assimilation Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íd͏̌d͏̌ō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō) Proto-Hellenic *-tās Ancient Greek -τής (-tḗs) Ancient Greek -ῐστής (-ĭstḗs)bor. Latin -istader. Old French -istebor. Middle English -ist English -ist English assimilationist From assimilation + -ist.

Meanings

1. An advocate of the policy or practice of the assimilation of immigrant or other minority cultures into a mainstream culture.
   • The conflict between melting-pot assimilationists and cultural pluralists betrays a fundamental uncertainty about the meaning of American nationhood, and about the role ethnicity plays in it. 1999, Christian Joppke, Immigration and the Nation-State: The United States, Germany, and Great Britain, page 147:
   • The one area where there was at least some agreement between assimilationists and Zionists was Palestine. 2000, Bruce F. Pauley, From Prejudice to Persecution: A History of Austrian Anti-Semitism, page 224:
   • To the assimilationists, American Jews have not merely acculturated — they have assimilated. 1998, Norman Linzer, David J. Schnall, Jerome A. Chanes, A Portrait of the American Jewish Community, page xii:
   • Spanish-language education is not favored by assimilationist parents of Latino children in the US.

Forms

Synonyms

integrationist

Translations (4)

pl asymilator (an advocate of the assimilation into a mainstream culture) · pt assimilacionista (an advocate of the assimilation into a mainstream culture) · pl asymilatorka (an advocate of the assimilation into a mainstream culture) · pl asymilant (an advocate of the assimilation into a mainstream culture)