Alma F. Taeuber

The Negro as an Immigrant Group: Recent Trends in Racial and Ethnic Segregation in Chicago

The processes of social and economic advancement and residential dispersion of Negroes cannot usefully be regarded as following the earlier processes of assimilation of ethnic groups. Negro residential segregation has remained high, despite their social and economic progress. Puerto Ricans and Mexicans, the most recent in-migrants, are economically less well off than Negroes, but their residential segregation is already less. A simple model demonstrates that only a small proportion of Negro residential segregation can be attributed to their low economic status.

Racial Segregation in the Public Schools.

This paper presents data on racial segregation in public elementary schools in 60 cities for the 1967-68 school year. Wide variation was found among school districts in the fundamental demographic constraints confronting school systems seeking to desegregate. The percentage Negro among students varied from less than 5 to more than 90. Among instructional staffs the percentage Negro ranges from a low of 2 to a high of 84. Levels of racial segregation were typically high. The index ranged from a low of 39 in Sacramento to a high of 97 in Tulsa and Okalhoma City. The average level of school segregation among the 60 cities was 79. The task of desegregation for each city was estimated using an index that reflects both the degree of segregation and the racial composition of students. Cities in the South would have to permit an average of 32% of their students to shift schools compared with 26% in the North. Finally, the segregation of students of one race from teachers of another was determined. Teachers of one race are typically assigned to students of that race.

White Migration and Socio-Economic Differences Between Cities and Suburbs

Large cities are apparently becoming increasingly differentiated from their suburban rings in socio-economic status. It has been speculated that this results from an influx of low-status migrants to cities and an outflow of high-status persons from cities to suburbs. Analysis of census data on migration patterns between 1955 and 1960 for 12 large metropolitan areas indicates a different and more complex pattern. Nearly all streams of migrants are of higher average socio-economic status than non-migrants. Large cities contribute to their suburbs and to other metropolitan areas more high-status migrants than they receive, whereas suburban rings receive more high-status migrants than they lose. This circulation of persons of higher levels of educational attainment and occupational status has the net effect of diminishing the socio-economic level of central city populations and augmenting the socio-economic level of suburban populations.

The Changing Character of Negro Migration

Recently published data on migration during the 1955-60 period reveal that, contrary to the popular stereotype, Negro in-migrants to a number of large cities, despite the presence of a socioeconomically depressed group of non-metropolitan origin, were not of lower average socioeconomic status than the resident Negro population. Indeed, in educational attainment Negro in-migrants to northern cities were equal to or slightly higher than the resident white population. Comparisons with limited data for earlier periods suggest that, as the Negro population has changed from a disadvantaged rural population to a metropolitan one of increasing socioeconomic levels, its patterns of migration have changed to become very much like those of the white population.

Recent Immigration and Studies of Ethnic Assimilation

ResumenLos estudios de asimilación étnica se basan frecuentemente en la comparación del status entre lo s nacidos en el extranjero y sus descendientes, “la segunda qeneración:” En este procedimiento está implícita la suposición de que la immigración reciente ha sido insignificante y que los nacidos en el extranjero representan una población cerrada. Sinembargo, un análisis de las estadisticas oficiales indica que los inmigrantes que llegaron desde la Segunda Guerra Mundial constituyen ahora una parte apreciable de la poblacion nacida en el extranjero, mientras que los nacidos fuera del pais que llegaron antes de que se establecieran cuotas de resiricción, están siendo rapidamenie diezmados por la mortalidad.Los últimos inmigrantes, de acuerdo a la iniención de la ley que fija cuotas, son de un status socioeconómico mucho más elevado que los inmigrantes que llegaron antes de la Primera Guerra Mundial. Por lo tanto, en los datos sobre la población nacida fuera del país, se confunden las características de los últimos inmigrantes con las de los que llegaron primero. Los datos existentes no permiten un enjuiciamiento riguroso de esta confusión, o un adecuado control de la misma. Este trabajo sugiere que las tabulaciones para los nacidos fuera del pais por “año de llegada,” mejorarían la utilidad sociolóqica de los datos para grupos étnicos.SummaryStudies of ethnic assimilation are frequently based upon status comparisons between the foreign born and their “children,” the second generation. The assumption that recent immigration has been negligible and that the foreign born represent a closed population is implicit in that procedure. However, analysis of official statistics indicates that immigrants who arrived since World War II now comprise a substantial share of the foreign-born population, while the foreign born who arrived before quota restrictions are rapidly being depleted by mortality. Recent immigrants, as intended by quota legislation, are of much higher socioeconomic status than immigrants who arrived before World War 1. Hence, characteristics of both recent immigrants and earlier arrivals are confounded in data for the foreign-born population. Existing data do not permit rigorous assessment of this confusion or adequate control for it. This paper suggests that tabulations of the foreign born by “year of arrival” would improve the sociological utility of data for ethnic groups.