From 'immigrant' to 'American:' assimilating into the mainstream

This is a good question; when does a person stop being an "immigrant"?   - - Donna Poisl

from minnesota.publicradio.org

How do some groups make the leap from being identified as "immigrants" to "Americans?" Is it the passage of time or something more?

We wanted to talk about the topic after a recent New York Times Room for Debate.
Ruben Martinez, English professor at Loyola Marymount University, will join The Daily Circuit Thursday.

"I am the son and grandson of immigrants from Mexico and El Salvador, and I've inherited my elders' ambition to 'make it' it in America as well as their anxiety over whether they would ever really fit in," wrote Martinez in The New York Times. "Ours is not the archetypal mid-20th-century path toward 'assimilation.'"
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