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Benevolent Assimilation is a term coined in 1898 by President William McKinley justifying invading the Philippines.
"Finally, it should be the earnest wish and paramount aim of the military administration to win the confidence, respect, and affection of the inhabitants of the Philippines by assuring them in every possible way that full measure of individual rights and liberties which is the heritage of free peoples, and by proving to them that the mission of the United States is one of Benevolent Assimilation substituting the mild sway of justice and right for arbitrary rule."
--William McKinley, December 21, 1898 [562]
This refers to assimilating a people group, read: absorbing foreign people into your own culture, with the primary stated reason being that it is an act of benevolence. It may be argued that there is no such thing as benevolent assimilation; all assimilation is malevolent.
Further reading
Benevolent Assimilation The American Conquest of the Philippines, 1899-1903, --Stuart Creighton Miller, (Yale University Press, 1982)
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