Full Citation
Title: Child labor among Italian immigrant families in the United States, 1880--1930
Citation Type: Dissertation/Thesis
Publication Year: 2001
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Abstract: This thesis explores the reasons behind child labor in Italian immigrant families. It uses the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) for the 1910 and 1920 U.S. Censuses to examine ethnic, gender, age, and generational differences among child workers in the United States. The data indicate that the rate of child labor in the Italian group generally resembled child labor rates in other groups: employment rates were higher for boys, for older children, and for first-generation children. The data also show that child labor declined sharply during the early decades of the twentieth century and across successive generations of Italian-Americans. Both primary and secondary sources illustrate that Italians came to the United States with a utilitarian view of children, seeing them as a component in a family economy oriented first toward survival and then toward accumulation. Interviews of Italian child workers suggest that many preferred the rewards of work to the rigors of the classroom. Oral histories taken later in life indicate that, in hindsight, those who had worked as children felt proud that they had contributed to their families' well-being, but many also looked back with regret over missed opportunities.
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Authors: Ruggles, Brock Jensen
Institution: Arizona State University
Department: History
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Degree: Master of Arts
Publisher Location: Tempe, AZ
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Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Migration and Immigration, Race and Ethnicity
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