How do schools teach American identity in light of immigration-driven diversity? This
ethnographic study focuses on everyday nation-making at Castro Middle School, located in
a city transformed by immigration. Building on theories of bidirectional assimilation, I show
how assimilation can produce new definitions of Americanness more recognizable to
immigrant communities, facilitating their national identification. At Castro, bidirectional
assimilation supported African American students' descriptions of Americans in multicultural …