Top of Form Prejudice, Discrimination, and Assimilation in the United States Racial and ethnic groups have faced various chal

Race & ethnic relations: American and global perspectives

Marger, M. N. (2015). Race and ethnic relations: American and global

perspectives (10th ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning .

..

IMMIGRATION AND THE

FOUNDATIONS OF THE

AMERICAN ETHNIC

HIERARCHY

CHAPTER 5

In the range of its ethnic diversity, the United States is unmatched in the contemporary world. It is a society whose population derives from virtually every region of the world, encompassing people of every imaginable culture, displaying equally varied physical characteristics . Ethnic diversity, however, is not a new American phenomenon. Al- though its heterogeneity has expanded in recent decades, from the outset of European settlement in the 1600s a continuous flow of newcomers added fresh ingredients to the American potpourri. It is not an exaggeration to describe the United States as the world's greatest experiment in social relations. No society before it and few since have attempted to blend such a varied and steadily changing mix of human elements.

That America is a nation of immigrants is now a well-worn cliche. The historian Oscar Handlin professed that when he began to write a history of immigrant groups in the United States, he discovered that the immigrants were American history. With rhe exception of Am~rican Indians and some Mexican Americans, all ethnic groups in the United States trace their origins to other societies. Even those exceptional groups, of course, were at one time migrants to North America. But how the various groups entered American society, the ways they adapted and were responded to, and their initial placement in and subsequent movement along the ethnic hierarchy all differed enormously.

In this chapter, we trace the formation of the United States as a multiethnic soci- ety and the development of its ethnic hierarchy. As explained in Chapter 2, groups ;nay make initial contact in several ways, including conquest, annexation, and volun- rary and involuntary immigration. That initial form of contact is critical in determin- ing each group's subsequent rate and manner of absorption into the mainstream society. In the case of American Indians, conquest was the nature of contact, and :i"or a few Hispanics, it was annexation. These cases are discussed in greater detail in Chapters 6 and 8. It has been through immigration, however- both voluntary and ravoluntary- that most groups entered American society and subsequently took :heir place in the ethnic hierarchy.

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108 PART II ETH NICIT Y JN THE UN ITED STATES

We begin with a brief discussion of the dynamics of immigration and some of the themes that sociologists and demographers have put forth in explaining this human phenomenon. We then trace the several major periods of large-scale immigration to the United States, focusing on how, in the process, the society's ethnic configuration has changed. Finally, we describe the contemporary ethnic hierarchy and how the changing makeup of the population is leading to new intergroup relations and trends.

THE SOCIAL, POLITICAL, AND ECONOMIC FACTORS OF IMMIGRATION

As far back as historians and archaeologists are able to trace, humans have been on the move. From prehistoric times forward, human migrations have been impelled by various factors: changing physical conditions, changing economic conditions, politi- cal turmoil, trade and commerce, exploration, and war.

THE ONSET OF LARGE-SCALE IMMIGRATION

During the past three centuries, long-distance migration has occurred on a far greater scale and has been more systematic and purposeful than in previous periods of hu- man history. Starting in the late fifteenth century, Spain and Portugal, followed by England, France, and Holland in the early 1600s, established global colonial em- pires, sending people from the homeland to various parts of Asia, Africa, North and South America, and Australasia. By modern standards, however, these migra- tions were small scale, involving government administrators, merchants, and soldiers who occupied' and secured the colonies. Settlers also arrived, but they were almost always outnumbered by indigenous peoples. At approximately the same time, an in- tercontinental migration began from Africa, though of an involuntary nature. Over the next three hundred years, around ten million Africans would be transported to North and South America and the Caribbean and another six million elsewhere through the slave trade (Lovejoy, 1996; Manning, 1992).

The nineteenth century marked the onset of international migration as we know it today. Population transfers involving large numbers now began to occur, especially from Europe to the Americas. In the one hundred years after 1820, thirty-three million Europeans would emigrate overseas (Thistlewaite, 1991). Four countries- the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Argentina- became the target destinations of the vast majority of these migrants. Among these four, however, the United States was by far the principal recipient society, absorbing about three-fifths of all European immigration.

THE STRUCTURAL FORCES OF MODERN IMMIGRATION

What stimulated this massive movement, and why did it begin in the nineteenth rather than in previous centuries? Three interrelated factors were pivotal: population growth, industrialization, and technological advances.

POPULATION GR owrn The emergence of modern technology in the nineteenth century brought about a sharp decline in the mortality rate of European nations. This

C HA PTER 5 IMM IGRATION AND THE FOU N DATIONS OF THE AMERICA N ETH NIC H IERAR CHY 1 0 9

process is commonly referred to as the demographic transition. Societies, according o this theory, pass through several demographic stages. In the first, birthrates and

death rates are both high, keeping population growth at a relatively stable level. _-grarian societies or those with a very low level of industrial development are char- acterized by this demographic pattern. In the second stage, birthrates remain at a high level, but with advancing industrialization new technologies give rise to better hygienic conditions, which in turn lead to declining death rates. This sets in motion a spiraling population. Most European societies in the nineteenth century were experiencing this phase of the demographic transition. The European population more than doubled between 1800 and 1900, producing great social strains. Similar conditions are occurring today in many developing societies. The third stage occurs when societies reach a high degree of industrialization and urbanization, forcing birthrates to decline; combined with low death rates, a stable rate of population growth is thereby achieved. Advanced industrial societies- North America, Western Europe, and Japan-reached this stage several decades ago and have entered a fourth stage in which low death rates combined with precipitously low birthrates make im- migration the primary means of assuring a replacement population (Mcfalls, 2003).

b.1)USTRIALIZATION As industrialization expanded in Western Europe in the nineteenth century, the agricultural sector declined, setting off both internal and international migrations. As people were driven off the land, first in Germany and England and later in other countries, they naturally migrated to the cities, when< jobs in burgeon- irig industries were to be found . The overseas migrations of the nineteenth century were thus preceded by internal rural-urban migrations. Later, people in other parts of the continent migrated to those countries of Europe where industrialization was most fully developed, Britain, Germany, and France. The rapidity and revolutionary nature of the changes brought about by the new industrial system outpaced the a bility of these countries to accommodate expanding populations, thus encouraging migration abroad. Moreover, the metropolitan societies of Europe supported emi- gration as a means of coping with social problems at home as well as expanding their iriterests abroad (Cohen, 1991) .

TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS Augmenting the demographic stimulants of migration were the transforming technological innovations that now facilitated the relatively rapid and efficient movement of people. With the development of steamships and ra ilroads, people were no longer confined to limited geographic space. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, transportation modes continued to become fa ster and more efficient, creating for most people virtually unlimited movement. ' Steamships," writes historian William Van Vugt, "made the world smaller so that

emigration was no longer as great a step as it had been" (1999:13) . Although immi- gration had been a constant phenomenon throughout all of human development, its scope now reached epic proportions.

bmIVIDUAL DYNAMICS OF IMMIGRATION

What has been described to this point are the structural, or macrolevel, dynamics of immigration. The decision of people to migrate, however, is not simply the product

IIO PART JI ETH N ICITY IN THE UNITED ST ATE S

of such impersonal, external forces. Not all people in a society in the midst of a pop- ulation explosion or a wrenching economic transformation choose to migrate. We must also consider, then, the dynamics of immigration at the individual or microlevel of analysis. What motivates people to abandon their homeland and move to another society, often with little or no foreknowledge of what awaits them in their new home? For individuals and families there can hardly be a more profound and chal- lenging experience than to leave their established surroundings and seek out a new life in an unfamiliar environment. Writers, historians, sociologists, and journalists have been intrigued by the immigration phenomenon for decades. This has particu- larly been apparent in the United States, where immigrants have been not only a staple focus of social science but a recurrent theme of novelists and folklorists.

Various forces motivate individuals and families to migrate. Political or religious oppression often encourages people to contemplate leaving. A sense of adventure or the desire for something new, particularly among young adults, may motivate them to migrate. But more than anything, it is the promise of economic betterment that functions as the lure for most immigrants . This is no less the case today than it was in the nineteenth century at the outset of large-scale immigration to America.

Pus H- PULL F ACTORS Classical theories of immigration stress the rational decisions of immigrants themselves in shaping migration patterns. The overriding assumption in this model is that immigration is a deliberate choice made by people once they have weighed the economic and social costs and benefits of moving. Following along these lines, those from poorer and relatively closed societies can be expected to move to richer, more open societies that promise greater economic and social opportunities.

Immigration, in this view, is largely a function of what are commonly described as push-pull factors. Push factors are those economic, social, and political conditions in the origin society that exert a stimulus for people to leave. Economic hardship and lack of future employment opportunities are the most common incentives for migra- tion, but political oppression, religious suppression, and poor quality of life might also serve as stimulants. The forces of change emerging in European societies in the nineteenth century (for example, technological innovations driving farmers off the land and pressures on the society to accommodate a rapidly expanding popula- tion) stimulated out-migration. Pull factors are those conditions that exert an at- traction to a target society . Jobs , an expanding economy that promises future opportunities, the availability of land, political and religious freedom, or a higher quality of life might serve as lures to potential immigrants. The United States, Canada, Brazil, and Argentina provided this pull for Europeans in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries . These countries needed settlers to develop and culti- vate their vast empty lands . Later, as industrialization took hold, they required huge workforces that could build an industrial infrastructure and provide a labor force for their factories and mines.

This perspective on immigration is based essentially on neoclassical economic principles. Labor markets operate much as markets for commodities and are shaped by basic supply ("push " ) and demand ("pull") dynamics. Thus, where there is a need for labor or where wages are high, people will move to fill those positions. Sim- ilarly, where unemployment is high and wages low, immigration will decline. Poten- tial migrants, it is assumed, engage in cost-benefit calculations, weighing their

L HA PTER 5 IM M IGR AT ION AN D THE FOU N D AT IO N S OF THE AMERICA N ETH N IC H I ERARCHY III

circumstances at home against the expected future payoff of migrating. When stay- ing becomes less beneficial than moving, individuals and their families will be in- -lined to consider migration.

Numerous intervening variables are factored into the migration decision (Lee, 1966). Migration entails acquiring sufficient resources to make the move; families or individuals may want to migrate but lack the financial means to do so. Or, con- sider information. People may think of migrating, but unless and until they acquire knowledge of a promising receiving society they will go nowhere. This in large mea- sure explains why the abjectly poor, for whom migration would seem a perfectly rational choice, rarely migrate: they lack the necessary financial and informational resources. Psychic costs and benefits may also be considered. Migrating to a new so ciety almost always involves some degree of trauma, giving up familiarity with the home society and adapting to a new one. Not all have the wherewithal to endure -uch a heavy psychological burden or choose to put their families through the -hange.

-OC IAL NETWORKS Although the rational decisions of immigrants themselves may ex- plain much about immigration dynamics, some theorists have pointed out the short- -omings of the neoclassical approach. Immigration decisions, they suggest, are el dom the result of rational calculation alone. Moreover, the market model cannot

explain why immigrants choose to go to one society rather than another. In addition, immigration may continue to occur even as traditional push and pul factors dimin- ish. In this view, social and communication networks linking sending and receiving ocieties are key factors that influence migration decisions. And, these factors serve

co perpetuate a migration stream after it has begun. Once a number of immigrants establish themselves in a new location, they be-

-ome a link with those left behind. Workers contact relatives and friends in their ho me villages and towns and inform them of work opportunities in the new location. To day, as we will see later, immigrants learn of employment opportunities and of o ther attractions of receiving societies not only through contact with migrants who have preceded them but also through advanced means of communication like televi- -ion and the Internet. Obviously these did not exist in the nineteenth and early twen- cieth century, mak<ing it necessary for immigrants already in America to inform their £riends and kin of the work opportunities and for employers to actively recruit work- ers and encourage them to come.

These social networks create what has been called a migration chain, wherein people tend to immigrate to locations that have already been settled by other family iem bers, friends, or coethnics . This typified the European immigration streams to

_-merica of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries . Most of the workers in a !ant or factory, for example, might have been from one country, but even more

-pecifically from one region or town, having been recruited by employers or by -oworkers. These migration streams were strengthened as well by the creation of ethnic institutions- churches, businesses, boardinghouses- that served the needs of exp anding ethnic communities.

Demographer Douglas Massey has explained that once these migrant networks are in place, there need be no economic incentive for the flow of migration to con- ;:in ue . Migration becomes self-sustaining in a process he refers to as "cumulative

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II2 PART II ETHNICITY IN THE UNITED STATES

causation": "Every new migrant reduces the costs and risks of subsequent migration for a set of friends and relatives, and some of these people are thereby induced to migrate, thus further expanding the set of people with ties abroad and, in turn, re- ducing costs for a new set of people, some of whom are now more likely to decide to migrate, and so on" (1999:45).

COMBINING MACRO – AND MICRO – PERSPECTIVES Theories of immigration are numerous and many emphasize global economic and political structures, the role of government, and transnational dynamics as critical variables in explaining contemporary interna- tional migration (Massey et al., 1993; Portes and Rumbaut, 2006). The push-pull and network models described previously focus on the decisions and motivations of individuals and families rather than on immigration as a collective phenomenon. These seem particularly applicable to the waves of voluntary immigrants from Europe to America of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. But immigration, like all forms of human behavior, comprises individual actions that occur within and are shaped by social structures .

What Castles and Miller (2009) refer to as the "migration systems approach" has become a more popular way for social scientists of various disciplines to ana- lyze immigration trends, using such a combined perspective . The basic idea is that immigration is the result of both macro- and microlevel structures. Macro- structures-governmen_t policies, the global economy, and international political conditions-provide an institutional setting within which individuals and families make decisions about migration. The immigration process, therefore, is always a

> . composite of the dynamics occurring at each level.

SETTLEMENT AND ADAPTATION

The journey of immigrants is, in the end, only a brief span in the total immigration process. Once having entered the new society, immigrants face the complications of adjustment. Immediate challenges-finding suitable housing and earning a living- are daunting by themselves . In addition, however, immigrants must confront longer-term social and cultural obstacles: learning the language of the new society, educating themselves and their children, and becoming accustomed to new norms and values.

THE CONTEXT OF RECEPTION How immigrants adapt and how well they succeed in a new society is only partially a function of the personal efforts, choices, and skills that they bring to the labor market. The political and social environment they are met with may be receptive or it may be hostile . What government policies are in place to deal with immigrants? What is the attitude toward immigrants among native-born residents? W hat support systems provided by family, friends , and co- ethnics do immigrants find, and is there a thriving ethnic community to meet their unique cultural needs? A combination of these factors-what Portes and Rumbaut (2006) call the "context of reception"-will determine how and at what speed im- migrants move in the direction of either assimilation or pluralism in their adaptive patterns and will affect, in the long term, their ultimate level of success.

C HA PTER 5 IMM IGR ATIO N AN D TH E FOU NDAT ION S OF TH E AMERI CAN ETH N I C HI ERAR C HY 113

OCIETAL EFFECTS It is important to consider that the impact of immigration falls not only on the newcomers. In fact, mass immigrations have a major impact on all of the receiving society's institutions- business and commerce, work, politics, religion, and education. Also affected are the society's language, cuisine, arts, fashion, and virtu- ally all other aspects of culture.

Migration streams to the United States during the nineteenth and early twentieth enturies had profound economic and social effects, continually adding new elements

to the society's original base and, in the process, transforming its character and cul- rure. As we will see later, this transformative process is perhaps even more evident to day as the most recent immigrant wave makes its societal mark.

EARLY IMMIGRATION TO AMERICA AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF ANGLO DOMINANCE

POPULATION COMPONENTS

Despite the human mix that characterized the United States almost from its very fo unding, before the 1830s the breadth of ethnic diversity was not yet great. When rhe first European settlers arrived, they encountered an indigenous population rhat, as we will see in Chapter 6, was both culturally diverse and geographically dis- persed. By the third decade of the nineteenth century, the indigenous peoples had been reduced to subordination and no longer posed a serious threat to European dominance.

The only other significant non-European group that was part of the American ethnic picture was composed of black slaves who had been orought from Africa be- ginning in the late seventeenth century . When blacks first entered the society, the lave system was not yet institutionalized. Most blacks were indentured servants, ontracted to serve their masters for a certain period of time, usually several years Franklin, 1980). This was not essentially different from the status of many white

indentured servants who had come from England, Scotland, and Ireland. By the '.ate 1600s, however, black slavery was established in several colonies, and the lave trade was firmly in place . Slavery in the American colonies at first grew slowly

but increased rapidly during the eighteenth century. On the eve of the American Revolution, slaves accounted for more than 20 percent of the colonial population Dinnerstein et al., 2003 ). Following independence, however, that percentage would egin to decline as Europeans began to enter the society in larger numbers.

Because of their cultural- but especially their physical- distinctness from the European settlers, blacks and American Indians (as well as Mexicans in the South- wes t) were, from the first, relegated to the bottom of the emerging ethnic hierarchy; Lheir position would not basically change afterward .

Although their numbers were small, immigrants were not unwelcome. In fact, :allowing the establishment of the American state, a general tolerance for European :mmigrants was quite evident, and their national origins and even religion were not i great concern. George Washington, speaking to newly arrived Irish immigrants in

~ – 83, expressed this attitude clearly in proclaiming that " [t]he bosom of America is pen to receive not only the opulent and respectable stranger, but the oppressed and

;-ersecuted of all nations and religions" (quoted in Muller, 1993:19) .

114 PART II ET HN IC IT Y IN TH E UN ITED STAT ES

It was the English-origin, or Anglo, group-whose defining ethnic features were its northwestern European and Protestant origins-that became the host, or domi- nant, group. Other, smaller, groups were mainly northwestern Europeans-Scots, Welsh, Scotch-Irish, Dutch, Scandinavians, and German Protestants- all culturally and racially close to this core group and, as a result, relatively quickly absorbed into it. Thus the core group represented a blend of rather similar cultural and racial elements, with the English unmistakably its majority component.

This core group subsequently set the cultural tone of the society and established its major economic, political, and social institutions . All following groups would be required to adapt to an Anglo-Protestant social and cultural framework. It became the standard, notes the historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr., "to which other immigrant nationalities were expected to conform, the matrix into which they would be assimi- lated" (1998:34). Glazer and Moynihan vividly describe the establishment of a dom- inant ethnic group in American society with the power to select those who came ~~ .

The original Americans became "old" Americans or "old stock," or "white Anglo Saxon Protestants," or some other identification which indicated they were not immigrants or descendants of recent immigrants. These original Americans already had a frame in their minds, which became a frame in reality, that placed and ordered those who came after them. It was important to be white, of British origin, and Protestant. If one was all three, then even if one was an immigrant, one was really not an immigrant, or not for long. (1970:15) 1

CREATION OF TPIE DOMINANT ETHNIC CULTURE

Although the Anglo core group has been diluted by successive immigrant waves over many generations and its cultural imprint likewise colored by other groups, its cultural dominance has remained unwavering throughout American history. "The white Anglo-Saxon Protestant," notes sociologist Lewis Killian, "remains the typical American, the model to which other Americans are expected and encouraged to con- form" (1975:16). The societal power of the Anglo core group also remains evident, as indicated by its continued overrepresentation among political and economic elites . It is true nonetheless that its power has been diminished in the past few decades by the increasing penetration of non-Anglo groups into these positions (Alba and Moore, 1982; Davidson et al., 1995).

The makeup of the dominant group itself has changed somewhat as other white Protestant groups have melded with it. Today the dominant ethnic group in Ameri- can society may be said to broadly comprise white Protestants, because those Protes-

… tants from other northwestern European societies- namely, the Scandinavian nations, Germany, and the Netherlands- have blended almost imperceptibly with those of British origins. White Protestants, then, have varied national roots, but their common Protestantism and racial character have neutralized any meaningful na- tional differences among them. References to the WASP, Anglo, or Anglo-American group, then, should be understood to mean "white Protestants of various national

1 From Nathan Glazer and Daniel P. Moynihan, Beyond th e Melting Pot, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1970). Copyright© 1970 by MIT Press. Reprinted by permission.

C H APTER 5 IMMI G RATIO N AN D TH E FO UN D A TI O NS OF TH E AMER ICAN ETH N IC H IERA RCHY I I 5

origins." These terms are used interchangeably to denote the dominant American ethnic group and its core culture.

DOM IN ANT CULTURAL V ALUES AND C OMPETING IDEOLO GIES Ideologies and public policies concerning American ethnic relations have historically reflected the cultural prefer- ences and the economic and political interests of the WASP, or Anglo, core group in several ways.

To begin with, the preeminence of Anglo cultural values has consistently under- lain public policies in education, language, law, welfare, and religion . The ascen- dancy of the English language, the English legal system, and, with few exceptions, the Christian faith, was never seriously challenged. From the beginning, the expecta- tion held sway that entering groups-immigrant, conquered, or enslaved-would conform to this core culture.

At certain times- especially in the early years of the twentieth century when eth- nic diversity seemed to reach a high point-the idea of the melting pot called into question the inevitability as well as the desirability of Anglo cultural dominance. The idea was that the cultural differences among the many immigrant groups, so conspicuous at that time, would disappear through a gradual blending process. Dif- fe rent ethnic cultures, it was felt, would eventually fuse into a single "American" cul- ture as a kind of hybrid creation. Although the notion of a melting pot remained ymbolically popular for many decades, it never found manifestation' in public policy

or gained widespread allegiance. In any case, the idea was incomplete because the place of non-Europeans in this ideal social brew was never fully dealt with . The melt- ing pot was belied as well by the fact that the boundaries among the European groups did not disappear, nor were their cultures ever entirely diluted by WASP norms and values.

Another competing ethnic ideology that gained adherents at times is cultural pluralism. As explained in Chapter 4, the objective of cultural pluralism, rather than a fusion of diverse ethnic groups, is the preservation of each. In the past, cul- tural pluralism in the United States never found more than token acceptance at the level of public policy. In recent times, however, schools, universities, and government agencies have acknowledged the pluralistic nature of American society and have made efforts to affirm multiculturalism as the society's dominant ethnic ideology Glazer, 1997).

The prevalent ethnic ideology, expressed most forcefully in government policies ~or most of U.S . history, is assimilation into the dominant group, or what Gordon 1964) has called Anglo-conformity. Groups are expected to shed their ethnic

uniqueness as quickly and as completely as possible and take on the ways of the -ore culture. This expectation always guided the prevailing social thought and policy :egarding new ethnic groups; it continues to do so even today despite the pluralistic, or multicultural, rhetoric of recent years.

Some have argued that today there is, in reality, no core culture per se. That is, _·ven the rapidly increasing ethnic heterogeneity of American society in r

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