Igens-20 Europeans: Immigrant Intergenerational Mobility in the United States (1940-2017)

• In Event: 4151 - International Migration Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 min): Table 14: Global Migration I

Abstract

Many have often thought that European immigrant families experienced seamless integration into the mainstream. However, racial and ethnic disparities persisted among these white immigrant groups and integration may not have been as seamless as once thought. Contemporary theories of segmented assimilation and immigrant optimism may thus extend to explain historical assimilation patterns. Current research emphasizes the need for further investigation of the third generation in order to solve this puzzle, however the data to answer this question are limited. The current study improves upon this limitation with new innovative data linkage techniques that have been made available by the U.S. Census Bureau. I utilize several surveys to link together three family generations. I start with individuals in the 1940 Census and link them forward to their descendants in the CPS, 2000 Census, and available years in the ACS. I focus on educational attainment, a common indicator of social mobility, and compare various European ethnic groups to their US-born white counterparts. The results show that the longstanding effects of being an immigrant persist through the third generation. Immigrant groups not only converge with US-born white attainment levels but also exceed these expectations by surpassing US-born whites. I find that the narrative of assimilation varies among European ethnic groups, likely attributable to both the circumstances apparent upon arrival and their pathways to assimilation that took hold after.

Author

• Kendal L. Lowrey, Pennsylvania State University