ABSTRACT
Assimilation is the grand theme of American immigration research. The classic sociological position provided an optimistic counter to the dim assessments of the new immigrants prevalent. Occupational status scores also underline the high achievements of the positively selected groups. At the top of the rankings stand the South Asian Indians; the distance between the occupational prestige scores for native-born of native parents group and for native-born whites of native parentages (NWNPs) exceeds the distance between NWNPs and Mexicans, the lowest-ranking group. The regression analysis shows that among women, no group surpasses NWNPs in the rate at which education is converted into occupational status. Diversity is the salient characteristic of the new immigrants to the United States, who differ from one another in national origins as well as in skills and prior experiences. Lisa J. Neidert and Reynolds Farley’s analysis of the 1979 Current Population Surveys yielded conclusions that contrast significantly to our findings from the late 1980s.
