Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T14:57:59.179Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Socioeconomic Attainment in the Ellis Island Era

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2016

Michael J. White  and
Erica Jade Mullen
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Contemporary discussions of immigrant assimilation in the United States often take the experience of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as a benchmark, yet significant gaps remain in our understanding of the generality and rate of immigrant progress during that era. Using four decades of Integrated Public Use Microdata Samples census microdata, we utilize both ordinary least squares microdata regression and double cohort methodology to examine socioeconomic assimilation across arrival cohort and country of origin during the Ellis Island era. Our results show, contrary to some writing, that while the first generation (the foreign born) exhibit decidedly inferior labor market outcomes, socioeconomic attainment (measured by Socio-Economic Index points) increased quickly with duration in the United States. Persons of the second generation and those of mixed parentage show much less penalty than immigrants. At the same time, we uncover differences in outcome by European region that do not disappear over the decades we examine.

Type
Articles
Information
Social Science History , Volume 40 , Issue 1 , Spring 2016 , pp. 147 - 181
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association, 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alba, Richard (2009) Blurring the Color Line: A New Chance for a More Integrated America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alba, Richard, and Nee, Victor (2005) Remaking the American Mainstream: Assimilation and Contemporary Immigration. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Alba, Richard, Philip, Kasinitz, and Mary, C. Waters (2011) “The kids are (mostly) alright: Second-generation assimilation: Comments on Haller, Portes and Lynch.” Social Forces 89 (3): 763–73.Google Scholar
Burgess, Ernest W. (1967) “The growth of the city”, in Park, R. E., Burgess, E. W., and McKenzie, R. D. (eds.) The City. Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 47–62.Google Scholar
Carter, Hugh, ed. (1949) The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Volume 262: Reappraising our immigration policy. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Cerase, Francesco P. (1974) “Expectations and reality: A case study of return migration from the United States to Southern Italy.” International Migration Review 8 (2): 245–62.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cinel, Dino (1991) The National Integration of Italian Return Migration, 1970–1929. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Constant, Amelie, and Douglas, S. Massey (2003) “Self-selection, earnings, and out-migration: A longitudinal study of immigrants to Germany.” Journal of Population Economics 16 (4): 631–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dillingham, The Honorable William Paul (1911) “Statistical review of immigration, 1820–1910; distribution of immigrants, 1850–1900.” Reports of the Immigration Commission to the Senate, 61st Congress. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Duncan, Otis Dudley, and Stanley, Lieberson (1959) “Ethnic segregation and assimilation.” American Journal of Sociology 64 (4): 364–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fischer, Claude (2010) Made in America: A Social History of American Culture and Character. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foner, Nancy (2000) From Ellis Island to J.F.K.: New York's Two Great Waves of Immigration. New Haven, CT, and New York: Yale University Press and Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Gans, Herbert (1973) “Introduction,” in Sandberg, N. (ed.) Ethnic Identity and Assimilation: The Polish Community. New York: Praeger: vii–xii.Google Scholar
Gans, Herbert (1992) “Second generation decline: Scenarios for the economic and ethnic futures of post-1965 American immigrants.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 15 (2): 173–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garfinkel, Irwin, Rainwater, Lee, and Smeeding, Timothy (2010) Wealth and Welfare States: Is America a Laggard or Leader? New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gmelch, George (1983) “Who returns and why: Return migration behavior in two North Atlantic societies.” Human Organization 42 (1): 46–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gordon, Milton M. (1964) Assimilation in American Life. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Haller, William, Alejando, Portes, and Scott, M. Lynch (2011) “Dreams fulfilled, dreams shattered: Determinants of segmented assimilation in the second generation.” Social Forces 89 (3): 733–62.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harvard University Library (2014) “Dillingham Commission (1907–1910).” Open Collections Program, http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/dillingham.html (accessed June 10).Google Scholar
Hauser, Robert M., and John Robert, Warren (1997) “Socioeconomic indexes for occupations: A review, update, and critique.” Sociological Methodology 27 (1): 177–298.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hirschman, Charles, and Mogford, Elizabeth (2009) “Immigration and the American Industrial Revolution from 1880 to 1920.” Social Science Research 38 (4): 897–920.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kasinitz, Philip, Mollenkopf, John H., Waters, Mary C., and Holdaway, J. (2009) Inheriting the City: The Children of Immigrants Come of Age. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Katz, Michael B., Mark, J. Stern, and Jamie, J. Fader (2007) “The Mexican immigration debate: The view from history.” Social Science History 31 (2): 157–89.Google Scholar
King, Miriam, and Ruggles, Steven (1990) “American immigration, fertility, and race suicide at the turn of the century.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 20 (3): 347–69.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
King, Russell (1978) “Return migration: A neglected aspect of population geography.” Area 10 (3): 175–82.Google Scholar
Lieberson, Stanley (1980) A Piece of the Pie: Blacks and White Immigrants since 1880. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lieberson, Stanley, and Mary, C. Waters (1988) From Many Strands: Ethnic and Racial Groups in Contemporary America. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
McKenzie, R. D. (1984) “The ecological approach to the study of the human community,” in Park, R. E. and Burgess, E. W. (eds.) The City. Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 63–79.Google Scholar
Mellott, Leanna M., and Sharon, Sassler (2007) “Growing up with single mothers: Occupational attainment of daughters in the early 20th century.” Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 25 (1): 73–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Migration Policy Institute (2012) “Number of immigrants and immigrants as percentage of the US population, 1850 to 2011.” MPI Data Hub: Migration Facts, Stats, and Maps, www.migrationinformation.org/datahub/charts/final/fb.shtml (accessed November 7).Google Scholar
Minnesota Population Center (2011) “Integrated occupation and industry codes and occupational standing variables in the IPUMS,” https://usa.ipums.org/usa/chapter4/chapter4.shtml(accessed June 15).Google Scholar
Model, Suzanne W. (1988) “Italian and Jewish intergenerational mobility: New York, 1920.” Social Science History 12 (1): 31–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Model, Suzanne W. (1997) “Ethnic economy and industry in mid-twentieth century Gotham.” Social Problems 44 (4): 445–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgan, S. Philip, Susan Cotts, Watkins, and Douglas, Ewbank (1994) “Generating Americans: Ethnic differences in fertility,” in Cotts Watkins, Susan (ed.) After Ellis Island: Newcomers and Natives in the 1910 Census. New York: Russell Sage Foundation: 83–124.Google Scholar
Myers, Dowell, and Cynthia, J. Cranford (1998) “Temporal differentiation in the occupational mobility of immigrant and native-born Latina workers.” American Sociological Review 63 (1): 68–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Myers, Dowell, and Seong, Woo Lee (1996) “Immigration cohorts and residential overcrowding in Southern California.” Demography 33 (1): 51–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Park, Robert E. (1926) “The concept of position in sociology.” Papers and Proceedings of the American Sociological Society 20: 1–14.Google Scholar
Perlmann, Joel (2007 [2005]) Italians Then, Mexicans Now: Immigrant Origins and Second Generation Progress, 1880 to 2000. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Portes, Alejandro, and Rubén, Rumbaut (2001) Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Portes, Alejandro, and Rubén, Rumbaut (2006) Immigrant America: A Portrait. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Portes, Alejandro, and Zhou, Min (1993) “The new second generation: Segmented assimilation and its variants.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 530: 74–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruggles, Steven J., Alexander, Trent, Katie Genadek, Ronald Goeken, Shroeder, Matthew B., and Matthew, Sobek (2010) Integrated Public Use Microdata Series: Version 5.0. [Machine-readable database]. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota.Google Scholar
Sassler, Sharon L. (2006) “School participation among immigrant youths: The case of segmented assimilation in the early 20th century.” Sociology of Education 79 (1): 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sassler, Sharon, and White, Michael J. (1997) “Ethnicity, Gender, and Social Mobility in 1910.” Social Science History 21 (3): 321–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sobek, Matthew (1996) “Work, status, and income: Men in the American occupational structure since the late nineteenth century.” Social Science History 20 (2): 169–207.Google Scholar
Tolnay, Stewart E., and Eichenlaub, Suzanne C. (2007) “Inequality in the West: Racial and ethnic variation in occupational status and returns to education, 1940–2000.” Social Science Research 31 (4): 471–507.Google Scholar
US National Park Service (2012) “Ellis Island,” www.nps.gov/elis/index.htm (accessed July 19).Google Scholar
Waldinger, Roger (1995) “When the melting pot boils over: The Irish, Jews, Blacks, and Koreans of New York,” in Feagin, J. and Smith, M. P. (eds.) The Bubbling Cauldron: The New Political Economy of Race and Ethnicity. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press: 265–81.Google Scholar
Waldinger, Roger (2001) “Strangers at the gates,” in Waldinger, R. (ed.) Strangers at the Gates: New Immigrants in Urban America. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waldinger, Roger (2007) “Did manufacturing matter? The experience of yesterday's second generation: A reassessment. ”International Migration Review 41 (1): 3–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warren, Robert, and Ellen Percy Kraly, (1985) The Elusive Exodus: Emigration from the U.S. Population Trends and Public Policy, Number 8 (March). Washington, DC: Population Reference Bureau.Google Scholar
White, Michael J., and Jennifer Glick, (2009) Achieving Anew: How New Immigrants Do in American Schools, Jobs, and Neighborhoods. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
White, Michael J., and Sharon, Sassler (1995) “Ethnic definition, social mobility, and residential segregation in the United States,” in Goldscheider, C. (ed.) Population, Ethnicity, Nation-Building. Boulder, CO: Westview: 267–98.Google Scholar
White, Michael J., Robert, F. Dymowski, and Shilian, Wang (1994) “Ethnic neighbors and ethnic myths: An examination of residential segregation in 1910,” in Watkins, S. C. (ed.) After Ellis Island: Newcomers and Natives in the 1910 Census. New York: Russell Sage Foundation: 175–208.Google Scholar
Woodham-Smith, Cecil (1962) The Great Hunger. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Wyman, Mark (1993) Round Trip to America: The Immigrants Return to Europe, 1880–1930. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar