Middle-class mythology in an age of immigration and segmented assimilation: Implication for counseling psychology

W. M. Liu, S. R. Ali, et al. (2004) provide a useful framework to understand the relevance of social class to counseling psychology research, but they overlook the intersection of race and social class in their review. The authors critique the middle-class mythology that pervades social class research in psychology and introduce segmented assimilation as an alternative process of adaptation among post-1965 immigrant groups. Segmented assimilation is defined as the variable process of adaptation and social mobility in the context of new patterns of immigration and accommodation into society that is racially and economically divided. The authors illustrate ways in which segmented assimilation may be incorporated into current and future counseling psychology research.