Another major factor affecting the likelihood of assimilation has been the size and concentration of ethnic groups. Those that make up the predominate population in a large community greatly insulate their members from the dominant cultural patterns of the national society. Their members can live surrounded by people sharing the same ethnicity and speaking the same familiar language or dialect. In this situation, pressures to assimilate can be greatly ignored. This has been the case with many Mexicans and Central Americans in East and South Los Angeles. In part, this has also been due to the continued high rates of immigration of Spanish speakers into these communities.
When immigrants are isolated from others of their ethnic group, it is much more difficult for them to resist the pressure to assimilate. This was the case with some of the Vietnamese boat people who arrived in the 1970's. The children of those who were relocated in smaller towns in the Midwest, rather than major cities in California, usually acquired non-Vietnamese friends and learned relatively quickly to speak English without a Vietnamese accent. These are important first steps in assimilation. However, whether or not it occurs also depends on the acceptance of the newcomers by the majority population.