Brian Gratton

Ecuadorians in the United States and Spain: History, Gender and Niche Formation

Ecuadorian emigration to the United States reveals a classic male-led exodus from rural regions faced by long-term economic decline. Occupational results reflect this model, and the general openness of the American labour market. Jobs are gender-segregated, but human capital effects are evident; niches do not dominate male or female experience, nor do they seem likely to persist. Recent emigration to Spain is distinct: sparked by a sudden economic collapse, it emerges from an urban population with relatively high human capital. It was initially led by women, many of whom left families behind, a rare event in migration history. The labour market in Spain is not only segmented by sex but, for women, characterised by an extraordinary concentration in the lowest occupational category, domestic service. This differential comparative outcome can be explained by the historical setting of the two flows and the gender distinction in migration leadership.

Old age and the search for security : an American social history

Preface Introduction: Historians and the History of Old Age in America 1. The Families of the Old 2. Wealth and Poverty: The Economic Well-Being of the Aged 3. Work and Retirement 4. The Threat of the Almshouse 5. Advice to the Old 6. A New History of Old Age Notes Index

Decision and Adaptation Research on Female Retirement

Review of the literature shows that while womens adaptation to retirement has been closely studied, little is known of the female retirement decision. No gender differences in adaptation have been demonstrated. Hampered by poor data sets and design, and responsive to the prejudicial assumption that women had low work commitment, early adaptation studies found that women workers adjusted poorly to retirement, often more poorly than men. However, these results have not been confirmed. Recent research shows that most women adjust well, and no consistent gender differences have been found. Gender differences are much more likely to be observed in the decision to retire. Analysis of the timing of retirement among married couples indicates that the characteristics of the spouse influence individual retirement decisions. The effects of these characteristics differ in strength and direction, depending on gender. Future research on female retirement should focus on decision making in the marital unit.

The Poverty of Impoverishment Theory: The Economic Well-Being of the Elderly, 1890–1950

Progressive Ear and New Deal reformers claimed that industrialization impoverished the elderly by degrading older workers. This has become the standard interpretation in popular and scholarly accounts. Data from 1890 through 1950 show that real wages of older workers rose sharply during this peroid and that family economic strategies promised the elderly considerable security. Birth cohort analysis indicates positive age-earnings profiles across the life cycle. Although the elderly benefited from economic growth, security in old age often demanded intrafamilial exchanges. Tensions arising from these transfers may explain the broad popular support Social Security received.

Mental health and the elderly: factors in stability and change over time.

Data from the Cleveland GAO Study reveal that, over one year, more elderly persons improved or remained stable than declined in self-assessed mental health and psychiatric symptoms. This pattern is contrary to findings that mental impairment increases with age. Factor analysis of a commonly used psychiatric symptom checklist identified two subscales, one a measure of psychological symptoms and the other of somatic symptoms; both of these are analyzed in this report. Secondary analysis of the 1,332 persons for whom data from both Ti (1975) and T2 (1976) are available evaluates this unexpected stability and improvement. Good physical health at T2 and less illness during the year emerged as the most powerful explanands for gains in all mental health measures, with higher educational levels also contributing to such gains. Improvement in self-assessed mental health was more likely for blacks than for whites, and males were more likely than females to show improvement in somatic symptomatology. Implications offindings for measurement of mental health and for the quality of life among the elderly are discussed.

Hispanics in the United States, 1850–1990: Estimates of Population Size and National Origin

(2000). Hispanics in the United States, 1850–1990: Estimates of Population Size and National Origin. Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History: Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 137-153.

Assimilation and intermarriage for U.S. immigrant groups, 1880–1990

Marriage outside ones ethnic or racial group constitutes the ultimate test of assimilation. In this research, we offer a new test of theories of assimilation by examining the choice of marriage partners among Mexican Americans, several European immigrant groups, and natives. Data from the 1880 to 1990 Integrated Public Use Microdata Samples (IPUMS) are employed, augmented by additional identification procedures developed for the Hispanic population. Assimilation measured by intermarriage rates varies by ethnic origin with striking affinity in historical patterns for Italians and Mexicans. Density and location of ethnic settlement, sex ratios, and generational mix played a role. Continued immigration marks certain groups, such as Mexicans, as structurally distinct.

Familism among the black and Mexican-American elderly: Myth or reality?

Familism proposes that the black and Mexican-American elderly enjoy special advantages through the economic and social support of extended families. Review of the literature raises serious reservations about this hypothesis, especially for the black aged. Analysis of census data on households indicates that older women of Spanish origin may benefit from familistic practices, but that black women are distinctive for extending their own households to children and grandchildren, bearing child-care and housekeeping responsibilities into old age. Rather than being products of historical minority cultures, unusual family and household patterns are probably consequences of economic dislocation, migration, and urbanization and thus reflect socioeconomic need in minority populations. Familistic theory may obscure the recognition of such need.

Immigrants, their children, and theories of assimilation: family structure in the United States, 1880-1970.

This research employs United States census data from 1880 to 1970 to assess the influence of ethnicity and generation on the family structure of Mexican, Irish, Swedish, Italian, Polish, and native white children. Using evidence for three generations, it tests two theories, linear assimilation and segmented assimilation. Assimilation theory makes no special claims for ethnic effects, but segmented assimilation proposes that ethnicity influences the incorporation of immigrant-origin children into American society. We find few consistent ethnic effects on the probability of family type. Our principal finding is that migration itself, common to all groups, has similar consequences for all; these are revealed in generational changes in family structure. The historical periods of open immigration do differ from the contemporary period, which implies that immigration policy affects family structure. The results disconfirm segmented assimilation theorys emphasis on ethnicity in family structure, and confirm aspects of linear assimilation theory. They point to the salience of structural factors resulting from the migration process and policy, rather than ethnicity, in the evolution of family form among immigrant-origin persons.

Industrialization, the Family Economy, and the Economic Status of the American Elderly

In his 1911 film What Shall We Do with Our Old? D.W. Griffith dramatized the belief that urban, industrial America had no place for the elderly. Fired for being too slow at his work, an impoverished old man cannot buy food or medicine for his wife, who languishes in their drab, one-room apartment. Justice Benjamin Cardozo told a similar tale in upholding the constitutionality of the Social Security Act ( Helvering v. Davis , 301 U.S. 619 [1937]): “The number of [aged] unable to take care of themselves is growing at a threatening pace. More and more our population is becoming urban and industrial instead of rural and agricultural.” Cardozo relied on studies by the U.S. Social Security Board (1937: 3), which found that “the major part of the industrial population . . . earns scarcely enough to provide for its existence. Savings are small and generally cover little more than the cost of burial insurance.” As a result, “industrial workers in [urban] areas . . . reach old age with few resources” (ibid.: 33).