The Old-New Distinction and Immigrants in Australia

Bibliographic Data

ID5248658
AuthorsStanley Lieberson (corresponding author)
Year1963
Volume28
Issue4
Pages550
Publication date1963-08-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Sociological Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-1224 • E-ISSN: 1939-8271
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2090071
OpenAlexW1991692563
LanguageEN
Citations received7

The old-new theory of differences between European groups in their adaptation and assimilation in the United States is applied to the large-scale immigration in Australia after World War 11. Since Australia, unlike the United States, first received sizable numbers of many northwestern and southeastern European groups at the same time, it is possible to test the validity of the theory when the groups are established at comparable periods in a society otherwise similar to the United States. As many as 9 old and 19 new groups are studied in terms of 14 indicators of work force characteristics, spatial segregation, amalgamation, and social problems. With the exceptions of urban segregation, location in rural areas, and intermarriage, the Mann-Whitney test fails to support the hypothesis when extraneous factors such as length of residence and age distributions of the groups are taken into account through standardization. These findings suggest both severe limitations in the generality of the old-new theory as well as the possibility that much of the old-new variance in the United States reflected differences in the groups' timing of arrival rather than cultural differences

Immigration · Political science · Sociology · Law · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies

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