Full Citation
Title: Resisting the melting pot: The long term impact of maintaining identity for Franco-Americans in New England
Citation Type: Journal Article
Publication Year: 2012
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Abstract: Approximately 1 million French-Canadians moved to the United States,mainly between 1865 and 1930, and most settled in neighboring New England. In 1900 almost a fifth of all persons born in French Canada lived in the U.S. These migrants exerted considerable efforts to maintain their language and to replicate their home country institutions,most notably the schooling system, in theirnew country. For decades, this resistance to assimilation generated considerable attention and concern in the U.S. The concerns are strikingly similar to those often invoked today in discussions of immigration from Hispanic countries, notably Mexico. Mexicans may not be assimilating into mainstream America as European immigrants did. We look at the convergence in the educational attainment of French Canadian immigrants across generations relative to native English-speaking New Englanders and to European Roman Catholic immigrants. The educational attainment ofFranco-Americans lagged that of their fellow citizens over a long period of time. By the time of the 2000 Census, they appear to have largely achieved parity. The effects of World War II, especially military service,were very important in speeding up the assimilation process through a variety of related channels: educational attainment, language assimilation, marrying outside the ethnicgroup, and moving out of New England. Economic assimilation was very gradual because of the persistence of ethnic enclaves.
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Authors: Parent, Daniel; MacKinnon, Mary
Periodical (Full): Explorations in Economic History
Issue: 1
Volume: 49
Pages: 30-59
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Education, Migration and Immigration, Other
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