Hungarian Immigrants in North America: Their Residential Mobility and Ecology

Abstract

Sociologists have formulated a number of general theories to explain the residential mobility of immigrants in American cities and the formation of immigrant colonies. One such theory, brought forth by the Chicago school of sociology, conceived the residential mobility of immigrant groups in reference to subsequent waves of immigration. According to that theory, an immigrant group, upon first arriving in a city, tends to settle in a compact community near the centre of the city which is usually a deteriorated area, a slum. As the individual immigrants improve their economic position, they move from this settlement to more desirable neighbourhoods; their place in the old colony, however, is taken by new immigrants. In such a process the older ethnic group may invade a new area near the centre of the city or it may move out entirely from that part of the city to be succeeded there by another ethnic group. This wave theory was successfully applied to Canadian cities to explain the foreign islands of Montreal and the Jewish community of Winnipeg.Recently Walter Firey has put forth another theory that regards the foreign colonies as more static formations in the ecology of large cities. His study of the Italian settlement in the North End of Boston has showed that Italian immigrants localize social solidarity in their ethnic area. They gather in a section of the city where they are among themselves and may maintain rather undisturbed their special type of life with its old system of values. Thus, the theory of localized social solidarity would imply that ethnic groups show less residential mobility than the native-born population and do not fall in line with the constant “filtering process” whereby the average resident tends to filter, according to his socio-economic success, into better residential districts with higher rents.