The Prediction of Economic Absorption and Cultural Integration among Mexican-Americans, Negroes, and Anglos in a Northern Industrial Community

Abstract

This is a report on a three-year study of immigrant labor in Racine, Wisconsin. The study has proceeded on the assumption that variations in economic absorption and cultural integration may be explained by: 1) antecedent experiences of a handicapping nature; 2) attitudes and values acquired previous to arrival in the community; and 3) present patterns of association, as well as by the attitudes and behaviors of people in the host community. The basic proposition is that measurable antecedent handicaps or indicators of these handicaps will explain a significant amount of the differences in absorption and integration within racial and ethnic groups as well as differences between racial and ethnic groups. This does not mean that discriminatory or other significant influences will be cast aside but rather that they account for only a part of the differences between groups.