Word: ethnicity
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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While the difficulties faced by most foreign immigrants and their descendants lessened in time, certain ethnic groups were much less able than others to adapt to Boston, and found themselves stuck at the bottom of the economic ladder. The Irish and the Italians were distinctly less upwardly mobile than other immigrant groups. On the other hand, 75 per cent of all second-generation Russian-Americans--many of whom were Jewish--finished their careers in white collar jobs...
Thernstrom discounted actual and structural discrimination as a major cause of low upward mobility among certain ethnic groups, because discrimination was generally experienced equally by most ethnic groups, and only some of the groups lacked upward mobility...
...advantage over other European groups of not having to adjust to a new language. What is more, many second-generation immigrants in Boston also had low upward mobility, and they grew up in an urban environment. Also, Thernstrom demonstrates that the degree of upward mobility within an ethnic group is unrelated to the extent that the group is segregated from the rest of society...
Although successful at pointing out weaknesses in others' theories concerning upward mobility among ethnic groups. Thernstrom is less successful at suggesting alternative theories. He contends that some aspect of Irish culture or Roman Catholic doctrine discourages Irishmen from striving to achieve material success and from investing in their children's education. Yet, as Thernstrom admits, such a theory explains little. Instead of looking for the reasons Irishmen held these values, the theory uses the fact that the Irish moved up the occupational scale less rapidly than other groups as "proof" simply that they did hold to such principles...
...brief argues that as a result of its "long experience" in the area of admissions and its expertise in choosing a well-rounded, diversified class representative of all ethnic, socio-economic and racial groups, the "oldest and largest privately-endowed institution of higher learning in the United States" knows best...