Race and Ethnic Relations

Race and Ethnic Relations

Dimensions of Ethnic Assimilation: Reaction Essay

In their article, "Dimensions of Ethnic Assimilation," Williams and Ortega (1990) attempt to empirically examine Gordon's typology of ethnic assimilation. They attempt to test the "validity of his typology" as well as investigate if "assimilation is, indeed, multidimensional" (698). They felt that in previous research and literature, the seven dimensions of assimilation where taken for granted correct (while, most often, only one was utilized in any one study).

In order to verify the veracity of the seven dimensions, they had to measure both ethnicity and assimilation. They measured ethnicity by asking their respondents to identify where (which country or part of the world) their ancestors came from (and asking which they made felt the closest to if more than one region was mentioned). Measuring assimilation along its various dimensions was more complex, but survey questions were the most common method used for data collection. For Cultural/Behavior Assimilation, Language ability and Cultural Practice (e.g., practicing their ethnic traditions and customs) variables were used. For Structural Assimilation, they focused on "primary contacts with person other than those in one's own ethnic group" (700), using the ethnic makeup of Organizations, Neighbors, and Friends as dimensions. Marital Assimilation was measured by looking at "whether individuals have ancestors from two or more ethnic groups…and whether spouses have the same…different ethnic backgrounds" (700). Identification Assimilation was measured by asking respondents how important it was to them that they think of themselves as a person from their ethnic country. To measure Attitude Receptional Assimilation, they used social distance scores from scales administered to national samples. For Behavior Recpetional Assimilation, they focused on respondents' feelings (and perceived frequency) of discrimination based on their ethnic background. To look at Civic Assimilation, the authors examined attitudes and behaviors regarding Alcohol Use.

Overall, they ended up with a sample consisting of 17 useable countries of origin, made up of 1,484 respondents. They analyzed their data using a factor analysis. They found that there were only three orthogonal factors: Structural Assimilation, Cultural Assimilation, and Receptional Assimilation. The larger Sutructural Assimilation factor had large loadings for structural and marital assimilation variables. Cultural assimilation had large loadings for cultural, identification, and civic assimilation. Receptional assimilation had large loadings for attitude and behavior variables (as well as marital).

These orthogonal factors were then used to create assimilation scales for the 17 ethnic groups. They found that structural and receptional and structural factors were significantly correlated, but neither was correlated with cultural assimilation. The further found that some groups were ranked consistently across types of assimilation (e.g., people of Russian German and Czechoslovakian decent), while, for many, there was an inconsistent pattern, with, e.g., high cultural assimilation and low structural assimilation or vice versa.