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balization, persons with bi-national identity are increasingly seen by the mainstream as assets. Therefore, it is more advantageous for Greek Americans to utilize the best of both worlds by following an “integration” approach to adaptation. Bicultural identification was also linked to immigrants' engagement in their 'host' societies. When immigrants perform bicultural identities they are more likely to be involved in the political life of their country of origin (Simon and Ruhs, 2008) and also have more opportunities to engage in political institutions within the host society (Huo and Molina, 2006).

A new version of the “straight line model” has come into circulation as a construct for explaining the participation of White ethnic group members in cultural heritage activities. First proposed by Gans in 1979, the concept of “symbolic ethnicity” denotes a new stage in the assimilation of middle-class, suburban Whites into an inclusive, Pan-European or Pan-White identity in which ethnicity is no longer the basis for collective action or the transmission of distinctive ethnic cultures across generations. As Gans (2009) recently stated:

Symbolic ethnicity proposes the rejection of or a departure from active ethnicity: from participation in ethnic groups and in ethnic culture. It hypothesizes a passive ethnicity, involving the temporary and periodic expression of feelings about or toward the ethnic group or culture through material and non-material symbols. Symbolic ethnicity can even be a leisure time activity that does not interfere with the economic, social and other imperatives of everyday life (p.123).

Rather than functioning as a structural factor that shapes access to social networks or as a social identity entwined with self-conceptions, in this model, ethnicity is recast into the equivalent of an avocation or hobby that middle-class White Americans periodically use as a means of feeling good about them. According to Gans, White ethnic identity may have a transient influence on individual self-esteem, but it no longer serves as a source of values, group cohesion, or as a determinant of behavior. In addition, as Waters (1990, 2000, 2009) has argued in her work on ethnic options, among White Americans of mixed ancestry, individuals can and do choose situational-contingent ethnic identities. The implications of symbolic ethnicity for Greek Americans in general and particularly for those who reside in middle-class suburban communities are substantial. At least, some members of this ethnic group may embrace a superficial Greek identity without the risk of incurring liabilities that were once attached to being viewed as a “non-White” race subordinate to the Anglo-Saxon core culture. In contemporary American society, then, the “costs” of being identifiably Greek are negligible but the affiliating bonds that join Greek Americans into a distinct group may weaken within and across generations.

We observed that 15 participants from our respondents, who are either Second or Third or beyond generations, had identified themselves as ‘Am本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。