The Theoretical Framework of the Study

Abstract

In attempting to grapple with the complex problems inherent in the study of social stratification, sociologists have always shown a keen interest in the process of social mobility, that is, “movement, either upward or downward, between higher and lower social classes.”1 For a variety of theoretical and methodological reasons, different facets of this complex process have received more emphasis than others at various times. Until quite recently, a great deal of scholarly attention had focused on geographical mobility or the phenomenon of migration. There were a number of reasons for this concern. Foremost among them was the enormous influx of European migrants to the United States during the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Coupled with this demographic factor was an open-class ideology that vigorously denied the existence of social classes and which considered geographical mobility on the part of the immigrant as a prelude to his ultimate social advancement. At the same time, a number of important historical studies have been carried out on various immigrant groups.2