Americanization

Within the United States Americanization refers to the process by which immigrants become naturalized and assimilated into mainstream American customs and values. Outside its national borders, the term is instead used to describe the influence of the U.S. on the culture of other countries, including their popular culture and political and economic systems. However, increasingly, in recent years the term Americanization is being widely used as a near synonym for two opposing conceptions of globalization: one referring to the homogenization of the world, the other to the hybridization and plurality of world cultures.