Abstract
To what extent did Southern, Central, and Eastern (SCE) European groups maintain distinctive residential patterns vis-à-vis Northern and Western European groups in the late twentieth-century USA? Classical assimilation and melting pot interpretations of these groups’ historical experiences imply that, by the century’s end, SCE European groups’ ethnic neighborhoods would have vanished. However, pluralistic or “beyond the melting pot” interpretations of these experiences suggest that such neighborhoods were durable, partly because of SCE European groups’ ethnic homogeneity preferences, that is, a desire to reside near co-ethnics. The present study’s 1970 and 1930–1980 data analyses indicate that Italians, Poles, Greeks, and Russian ancestry Jews had unique residential patterns net of their socioeconomic status and of US-born persons’ expressed desires for social distance from these groups. The study concludes that SCE European groups’ distinctive residential patterns may have been due partly to these groups’ ethnic homogeneity preferences, although alternative explanations are not completely dismissed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alba, R. M. (2009). Blurring the color line: The new chance for a more integrated America. Harvard University Press.
Alba, R., & Nee, V. (2003). Remaking the American mainstream: Assimilation and contemporary immigration. Harvard University Press.
Bogardus, E. S. (1928). Immigration and race attitudes. D.C. Heath and Company.
Bogardus, E. S. (1968). Comparing racial distance in Ethiopia, South Africa, and the United States. Sociology and Social Research, 52(1), 149–156.
Bonilla-Silva, E. (2010). Racism without racists: Color-blind racism and racial inequality in contemporary America. Rowman and Littlefield.
Borjas, G. J. (1994). Long-run convergence of ethnic skill differentials: The children and grandchildren of the Great Migration. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 47(4), 553–573.
Borjas, G. J. (1995). Ethnicity, neighborhoods, and human-capital externalities. American Economic Review, 85(3), 365–390.
Boyd, R. L. (2021). Social distance attitudes, educational mobility, and European ancestry groups in the post-World-War II United States. Social Science Quarterly, 102(4), 2985–2995.
Burgess, E. W. (1925). The growth of the city: An introduction to a research project. In R. E. Park, E. W. Burgess, & R. D. McKenzie (Eds.), The city (pp. 47–62). University of Chicago Press.
Duncan, O. D., & Lieberson, S. (1959). Ethnic segregation and assimilation. American Journal of Sociology, 64(4), 364–374.
Eriksson, K., & Ward, Z. A. (2018).The ethnic segregation of immigrants in the United States, 1850–1940. Working paper 24764, NBER Working Paper Series. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research
Eriksson, K., & Ward, Z. A. (2019). The residential segregation of immigrants in the United States from 1850 to 1940. Journal of Economic History, 79(4), 989–1026.
Farley, R., & Allen, W. R. (1987). The color line and the quality of life in America. Russell Sage Foundation.
Feagin, J. R., & Feagin, C. B. (2003). Racial and ethnic relations. Pearson Education Inc.
Fox, C., & Guglielmo, T. A. (2012). Defining America’s racial boundaries: Blacks, Mexicans, and European immigrants, 1890–1945. American Journal of Sociology, 118(2), 327–379.
Glazer, N., & Moynihan, D. P. (1963). Beyond the melting pot. MIT Press.
Goldstein, E. (2006). The price of whiteness: Jews, race, and the making of American identity. Princeton University Press.
Gordon, M. (1964). Assimilation in American life: The role of race, religion, and national origins. Oxford University Press.
Greeley, A. M. (1974). Ethnicity in the United States. Wiley.
Higham, J. (1994). Strangers in the land: Patterns of American nativism, 1860–1925. Rutgers University Press.
LaPiere, R. T. (1934). Attitudes vs. actions. Social Forces, 34(2), 230–237.
Lee, J., & Bean, F. (2007). Reinventing the color line: Immigration and America’s new racial/ethnic divide. Social Forces, 86(2), 561–586.
Lichter, D. T., Parisi, D., & Taquino, M. C. (2015). Toward a new macro-segregation? Decomposing segregation within and between metropolitan cities and suburbs. American Sociological Review, 80(4), 843–873.
Lieberson, S. (1963). Ethnic patterns in American cities. Free Press.
Lieberson, S. (1980). A piece of the pie: Blacks and white immigrants since 1880. University of California Press.
Lieberson, S., & Waters, M. C. (1988). From many strands: Ethnic and racial groups in contemporary America. Russell Sage Foundation.
Massey, D. S., & Denton, N. A. (1988). The dimensions of residential segregation. Social Forces, 67(2), 281–315.
McLemore, S. D., & Romo, H. D. (2005). Racial and ethnic relations in America. Allyn and Bacon.
Owen, C. A., Eisner, H. C., & McFaul, T. R. (1981). A half century of social distance research: National replication of the Bogardus studies. Sociology and Social Research, 66(1), 80–98.
Pager, D., & Quillian, L. (2005). Walking the talk? What employers say versus what they do. American Sociological Review, 70(3), 355–380.
Park, R. E. (1967). The urban community as a spatial pattern and a moral order. In R. H. Turner (Ed.), Robert Park on social control and collective behavior (pp. 55–68). University of Chicago Press.
Parrillo, V. N. (2006). Strangers to these shores. Allyn and Bacon.
Parrillo, V. N., & Donoghue, C. (2005). Updating the Bogardus social distance studies: A new national survey. The Social Science Journal, 42(2), 257–271.
Roediger, D. (2005). Working toward whiteness: How America’s immigrants became white. Basic Books.
Rosenthal, E. (1975). The equivalence of United States census data for persons of Russian stock or descent with American Jews: An evaluation. Demography, 12(2), 275–290.
Spielman, S. E., & Logan, J. R. (2013). Using high-resolution population data to identify neighborhoods and establish their boundaries. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 103(1), 67–84.
Yancey, G. (2003). Who is white? Latinos, Asians, and the new black/nonblack divide. Rienner.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
The author declares no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Boyd, R.L. How “Ethnic” Were White Ethnic Neighborhoods? European Ancestry Groups in the Twentieth-Century USA. Int. Migration & Integration 24, 1211–1229 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-022-01000-w
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-022-01000-w