Imigração, assimilação e xenofobia: algumas notas

Abstract

This article aims to gather some notes made from studies carried out within the research group Migrations and Identity. Taking as its starting point some questions about the concept of assimilation, the contributions presented by some of the researchers of the School of Chicago, such as W. I. Thomas & F. Znanieck and R. E. Park & E. W. Burgess, and more recent ones such as M. Gordon and R. Alba & V. Nee, were reviewed. Following the study of the Authoritarian Personality by T. W. Adorno and collaborators, and the studies carried out by J. L. Crochík in the fi eld of psychology, we have attempted to show that xenophobia, as well as other forms of discrimination, has the prejudice at their base. Finally, considering that the insertion process depends not only on the immigrant’s eff orts to adapt to the dominant culture but, above all, on reception by the host society, it is understood as necessary to recognize xenophobia and other manifestations of prejudice as barriers that impede
full social participation.