The twilight of ethnicity among Americans of European ancestry: The case of Italians*

1974

This paper delineates some basic characteristics of ethnic groups in contemporary American society and develops a typology for defining and classifying ethnic groups which is more consistent with the current characteristics of ethnic groups than many existing definitions and typologies. Several social forces have changed the characteristics and relationships of ethnic groups in the United States since the major concepts and theories related to ethnic groups and ethnicity were formulated, As a result, new concepts and generalizations are needed to adequately describe the characteristics of the "new" ethnicity. The functions served by ethnic group affiliation suggest that there are several ways of classifying ethnic groups and determining the degrees to which various racial and ethnic groups manifest these identified characteristics. Several types Of ethnic groups are identif ied, including cultural, economic. political, eco-political, and holistic. While every American is a member of an ethnic group, the authors conclude that ethnicity manifest itself in diverse forms in modern American life, and that Americans belong to many different kinds of ethnic groups. The degree to which a particular cultural, nationality, or racial group is ethnic varies with a number of social, economic, and political conditions within the society. (Author/JR) * * via the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS). BDRS is not * responsible for the quality of the original document, Reproductions * * supplied by ?DRS are the best that can be made from the original. *

1992

Demography, 1991

In addition to specific inquiries about race and Spanish origin, the censuses of 1980 and 1990 included an open-ended question about ancestry, which replaced the question about parents' place of birth that had been used since 1870. This paper examines findings from the new ancestry question from the perspective of measuring ethnicity. The question adds little information about Hispanics, racial minorities, or recent immigrants, who can be identified readily on the basis of other census inquiries. The ancestry question allows us to characterize the descendants of European immigrants, but because of ethnic intermarriage, the numerous generations that separate present respondents from their forebears, and the apparent unimportance of ancestry to many whites of European origin, responses appear quite inconsistent. In regard to these groups, we may now be in an era of optional ethnicity, in which no simple census question will distinguish those who identify strongly with a specific European group from those who report symbolic or imagined ethnicity.

Center for Migration Studies special issues, 1989

1988

Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 1993

Journal of Transnational American Studies

This volume contributes to US ethnic and immigration studies by bringing into conversation scholars working in the elds of Italian American and Greek American studies in the United States, Eu rope, and Australia. The work moves beyond the "single group approach"-an approach that privileges the study of ethnic singularity-to explore instead two ethnic groups in relation to each other, primarily in the broader context of the United States and secondarily in Greece, in Italy, and in one speci c case Australia. The chapters bring into focus transcultural interfaces and inquire comparatively about similarities and differences in cultural repre sen ta tions associated with these two groups. 2 This conversation is necessary for several reasons, one certainly in relation to a power ful academic discourse that often tends to undervalue the study of Eu ro pean Americans. Seen as tenuously holding onto surface identities and largely assimilated into "whiteness," Italian Americans and Greek

Quaderni d'italianistica, 2018

View Crossmark data mind the fragility of the world that they create, and the very minimal options open to them. This is apparent in the chapter on fragile communitiesthrough the difficulties of liaising with others, having to make decisions about who to trust and how much, the burden of keeping secrets, and the toll this can take on personal life.