Group Boundaries in New York and Chicago: New Uses of the 1880 Census

Suny At Albany, Albany NY

Investigators

Abstract

This research will investigate the residential and occupational integration of European immigrants and migrant Southern blacks in New York and Chicago between 1880 and 1920. Previous research has analyzed these questions using samples from individual Census data in 1900 and 1920. The availability of a 100% sample of the 1880 Census makes possible linkages back to an era when immigration from West Europe was at its height and immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe was just beginning. The 1880 data will enable answers to such questions as whether the greater integration in 1900 of the first immigrant groups (e.g., Germans and Irish) over more recent immigrants (e.g., Italians and Russians) was because of their longer history of assimilation or because they were never as segregated in the first place. Matching 1920 individuals and families back to 1880 greatly enhances the ability to study inter-generational mobility and to distinguish 3rd and 4+ generation Americans who have been previously classified together as "native whites".