The Social Mobility of Portuguese Immigrants in the United States at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

The social mobility of immigrants in the United States, may be described by a U-shape curve. The initial tendency for downward mobility is attributed to immigrants’ imported cultural values. The turning point in the curve is predicted to occur at a given level of integration, beyond which immigrants overcome the initial disadvantages and move upwardly. Both proponents and challengers seem to take for granted that cultural heritages are the main determinants of immigrants’ patterns of social mobility in the United States. This article addresses immigrants’ social mobility from a different view. The departing question is what are the main factors affecting the social mobility of immigrants drawn from the same sociocultural background? To answer this question, the social mobility of first generation Portuguese immigrants to the United States at the turn of the nineteenth century is analyzed. What makes this migrant group particularly interesting is that they were one of the most culturally homogeneous groups entering the United States at that point, yet they presented quite different patterns of social mobility after settlement. The analysis was based on a sample of first generation Portuguese immigrants settled in Massachusetts, California and Hawaii collected from the 1910 manuscript census of the United States. It reveals that, for the Portuguese case, the main determinants of social mobility were the way they entered the United States, the strength of the migrant group network, and the job and land opportunities in the region of settlement.