Generational Differences in Attitudes and Socioeconomic Status among Hispanics in Houston |
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| Authors: | Matthew McKeever Stephen L. Klineberg |
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| Affiliation: | Is assistant professor of sociology at the University of Kentucky. He received his B.A. from Haverford College and his Ph.D. from UCLA. His research interests include occupational and demographic change in Houston, the economic and political transformation of South Africa and Eastern Europe, and the changing nature of the economic consequences of divorce.;Is professor of sociology at Rice University. He received his B.A. from Haverford College and his Ph.D. in social psychology from Harvard University. He has been director since 1982 of the annual Houston Area Survey, including extensive collateral research in Houston's rapidly growing ethnic communities. Since 1990, he has also directed the biennial Texas Environmental Survey. He is at work this year on several additional journal articles and on a book that builds on this research to assess the nature and determinants of public perceptions of issues of economic, demographic, and environmental change. |
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| Abstract: | The complex variety of experiences that characterize the current wave of immigration have prompted revisions in the classic model of straight-line assimilation; the most important alternative theory is based on the concept of "segmented" assimilation. This paper assesses the validity of these two perspectives with data on three generations of Hispanic immigrants in Houston. Contrary to the standard assimilation model, third-generation Hispanics are not staying in school longer, nor are they earning higher wages than members of the second generation. But contrary to the segmented-assimilation model, third-generation Hispanics also give no evidence at all of having assimilated into an "adversarial" culture that rejects mainstream American values and is presumably responsible for restricting their upward mobility. The data reaffirm the pivotal role of education in determining occupational mobility, and they point to the importance of identifying the external societal factors that account for the stalled progress in educational achievement among third-generation Hispanic Americans. |
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