Publications by Author

Charles Hirschman

Research

Hirschman, C., (Forthcoming), The Structure of Teenage Employment: Social Background and the Jobs Held by High School Seniors, Research in Social Stratification and Mobility.

An abstract for this article is not available.

Hirschman, C.; Massey, D. S., (Forthcoming), Peoples and Places: The New American Mosaic, New faces in new places : the changing geography of American immigration, Massey, D. S., Russell Sage Foundation, New York.

An abstract for this publication is not available.

Hirschman, C., (2007), Immigration and an Aging America: Downward Spiral or Virtuous Circle?, Social structures : demographic changes and the well-being of older persons, Schaie, K. W.; Uhlenberg, P., Springer, New York.

An abstract for this article is not available.

Hirschman, C., (2007), The Impact of Immigration on American Society: Looking Backward to the Future, Transit - Europaische Revue, 32, 84-99.

Even as most Americans celebrate their heritage and identity as a "nation of immigrants," there is deep ambivalence about future immigration. There is a strong base of support for continued immigration as a necessary ingredient for economic growth and as an essential element of a cosmopolitan society among many Americans. Almost 60 million people— more than one fifth of the total population of the United States—are immigrants or the children of immigrants. For most of this community, immigration policy is not an abstract ideology but a means of family reunification and an affirmation that they are part of the "American dream."

On the other side, there is a substantial share, perhaps a majority, of Americans who are opposed to a continuation of large scale immigration. Many opponents of immigration are old stock Americans who have all but forgotten their immigrant ancestors. They often live in small towns or in suburban areas, and many have relatively little contact with immigrant families in their neighborhoods, churches, and friendship networks. Beyond the debate over the economic consequences of immigration, there is also an emotional dimension that shapes sentiments toward immigration. Many Americans, like people everywhere, are more comfortable with the familiar than with change. They fear that newcomers with different languages, religions, and cultures are reluctant to assimilate to American society and to learn English.

Although many of the perceptions and fears of old stock Americans about new immigrants are rooted in ignorance and prejudice, the fears of many Americans about the future are not entirely irrational. With globalization and massive industrial restructuring dominating many traditional sources of employment (both blue collar and white collar), many native born citizens are fearful about their (and their children’s) future. The news media often cite examples of industries that seek out low cost immigrant workers to replace native born workers. Some sectors, such as harvesting vegetables and fruits in agriculture, have very few native born Americans seeking jobs in them, but immigrants are also disproportionately employed in many other sectors, including meatpacking, construction, hospitals, and even in many areas of advanced study in research universities. These examples are fodder for unscrupulous political leaders who seek to exploit popular fears for their own ends.

While it is not possible to predict the role of immigration in America’s future, it is instructive to study the past. The current debates and hostility surrounding immigrants echo throughout American history. What is most surprising is that almost all popular fears about immigration and even the judgments of "experts" about the negative impact of immigrants have been proven false by history. Not only have almost all immigrants (or their descendants) assimilated over time, but they have broadened American society in many positive ways. In this review, I discuss the popular fears about immigrants by old stock Americans and the historical record of immigrant contributions to the evolution of the industrial economy, political reform, and even to the development of American culture.

Hirschman, C.; Edwards, J., (2007). Social Change in Southeast Asia, The Blackwell encyclopedia of sociology, Ritzer, G., 9, 4374-80, Blackwell Pub., Malden, MA.

An abstract for this article is not available.

Jacobson, M. F.; Hirschman, C., (2007). Book Reviews - Roots Too: White Ethnic Revival in Post -- Civil Rights America, The American journal of sociology, 113: 1, 274.

An abstract for this article is not available.

Hirschman, C., (2006). The Meaning and Measurement of Ethinicity in Malaysia: An Analysis of Census Classification, On the margins of Asia : diversity in Asian states, Keyes, C. F., Association for Asian Studies, Ann Arbor, Mich.

An abstract for this article is not available.

Hirschman, C.; Alba, R.; Farley, R., (2006). Race and Ethnicity: Definitions and Measurement, Historical statistics of the United States : earliest times to the present, Carter, S. B.; Sutch, R., Cambridge University Press, New York.

An abstract for this article is not available.

Susan K. Brown and Charles Hirschman (2006). The End of Affirmative Action in Washington State and Its Impact on the Transition from High School to College. Sociology of Education 79,106-130.

Changes in affirmative action policies in some states create possibilities for "natural experiments" to observe the effect of public policy on racial and ethnic inequality in American society. This study measured the impact of Initiative 200, a ballot measure that eliminated affirmative action in Washington State, on the transition from high school to college. As of 1999, the year after I-200 passed, the proportion of minority high school seniors who went to college in Washington State decreased temporarily. The impact of I-200 was registered almost entirely at the University of Washington, the flagship public institution in the state. This decrease, however, stemmed less from changes in minority admission rates than from declines in application rates. Affirmative action programs may provide a signal of an institutional "welcoming environment" that serves as a counterweight to the normal reluctance of prospective students to apply to institutions that may be perceived as intimidating. Although the impact of I-200 was short-lived, significant racial and ethnic differences remain in the transition from high school to college.

Amon Emeka and Charles Hirschman. (2005). "Who Applies For and Who Is Selected for Washington State Achievers Scholarships? A Preliminary Assessment." In Edward St. John, ed. Public Policy and Equal Educational Opportunity: Readings on Equal Education. Volume 21, pp. 177-206. New York: AMS Press.

This report identifies the characteristics of those who apply for the Washington State Achievers Program, as well as those who are ultimately selected, in order to shed light on the factors that impede low-income students from receiving a college education. Rather than simply choosing the best low-income students from schools around the state, this program targets large numbers of students from selected schools in order to establish a "culture of college attendance" at these schools, which will hopefully carry over in years to come and affect entire groups of students rather than a few select students. In the three high schools that were studied for this report, one in five students received a scholarship-a relatively high percentage. The study found that students who receive encouragement to attend college and are popular are significantly more likely to win awards because they are significantly more likely to apply than are other students. Students who spend more time on homework and have more contact with counselors also are significantly more likely to receive awards because they are more apt to apply AND because they are favored in the selection process. Due to the small numbers of students considered, the authors caution that these results must be considered preliminary and tentative.

Charles Hirschman and Stewart E. Tolnay. (2005). "Social Demography." In Dudley L. Poston and Michael Micklin, eds. Handbook of Population, pp. 419-449. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.

An abstract for this publication is not available.

Charles Hirschman. (2005). "Population and Society: Historical Trends and Future Prospects." In Craig Calhoun, Chris Rojek, and Bryan S. Turner, eds. The Sage Handbook of Sociology, pp. 381-402. London: Sage Publications.

An abstract for this publication is not available.

Charles Hirschman and Jennifer Lee. (2005). "Race and Ethnic Inequality in Educational Attainment in the United States." In Michael Rutter and Marta Tienda, eds. Ethnicity and Causal Mechanisms, pp. 107-138. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

An abstract for this publication is not available.

Charles Hirschman. (2005). "Immigration and the American Century." Demography 42 (November): 595-620.

The full impact of immigration on American society is obscured in policy and academic analyses that focus on the short-term problems of immigrant adjustment. With a longer-term perspective, which includes the socioeconomic roles of the children of immigrants, immigration appears as one of the defining characteristics of twentieth-century America. Major waves of immigration create population diversity with new languages and cultures, but over time, while immigrants and their descendants become more "American," the character of American society and culture is transformed. In the early decades of the twentieth century, immigrants and their children were the majority of the workforce in many of the largest industrial cities; in recent decades, the arrival of immigrants and their families has slowed the demographic and economic decline of some American cities. The presence of immigrants probably creates as many jobs for native-born workers as are lost through displacement. Immigrants and their children played an important role in twentieth-century American politics and were influential in the development of American popular culture during the middle decades of the twentieth century. Intermarriage between the descendants of immigrants and old-stock Americans fosters a national identity based on civic participation rather than ancestry.

Snipp, C. Matthew and Charles Hirschman. (2005). "Assimilation in American Society: Occupational Achievement and Earnings for Ethnic Minorities in the United States, 1970 to 1990." In David Bills, ed. The Shape of Inequality: Stratification and Ethnicity in Comparative Perspective. Amsterdam: Elsevier, JAI.

An abstract for this publication is not available.

Charles Hirschman. (2004). The Origins and Demise of the Concept of Race. Population and Development Review, 30, 385-415.

Physical and cultural diversity have been salient features of human societies throughout history, but "race" as a scientific concept to account for human diversity is a modern phenomenon created in nineteenth-century Europe as Darwinian thought was (mis)applied to account for differences in human societies. Although modern science has discredited race as a meaningful biological concept, race has remained as an important social category because of historical patterns of interpersonal and institutional discrimination. However, the impossibility of consistent and reliable reporting of race, either as an identity or as an observed trait, means that the notion of race as a set of mutually exclusive categories is no longer tenable. As a social science term, race is being gradually abandoned. Physical differences in appearance among people remain a salient marker in everyday life, but this reality can be better framed within the concept of ethnicity.

Charles Hirschman. (2004). The Role of Religion in the Origins and Adaptation of Immigrant Groups in the United States. International Migration Review, 38, 1206-1233.

The classical model of the role of religion in the lives of immigrants to the United States, formulated in the writings of Will Herberg and Oscar Handlin, emphasized cultural continuity and the psychological benefits of religious faith following the trauma of immigration. Although this perspective captures an important reason for the centrality of religion in most immigrant communities (but not for all immigrants), the classical model does not address the equally important socioeconomic role of churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques in American society. The creation of an immigrant church or temple of-ten provided ethnic communities with refuge from the hostility and discrimination from the broader society as well as opportunities for economic mobility and social recognition. In turn, the successive waves of immigrants have probably shaped the character as well as the content of American religious institutions.

Charles Hirschman. (2003). "Fertility Transition, Socioeconomic Determinants of." In Paul Demeny and Geoffrey McNicoll (eds.) Encyclopedia of Population, 1: 425-431. New York: Macmillan Reference USA.

An abstract for this publication is not available.

Charles Hirschman. (2002). "The Meaning of Race and Ethnic Population Projections." In Nancy A. Denton Stewart E. Tolnay (eds.) American Diversity: A Demographic Challenge for the Twenty-First Century, pp. 51- 72. Albany: State University of New York Press.

An abstract for this publication is not available.

Charles Hirschman. (2001). " Immigration, Pubic Policy." In Neil J. Smelser and Paul B. Baltes (eds.) International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Vol. 11:7221-7226. Oxford: Elsevier.

An abstract for this article is not available.

Charles Hirschman. (2001). "Fertility Transition in Southeast Asia." In Neil J. Smelser and Paul B. Baltes (eds.) International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Vol. 8: 5597-5602. Oxford: Elsevier.

An abstract for this article is not available.

Charles Hirschman. (2001). The Educational Enrollment of Immigrant Youth: A Test of the Segmented-Assimilation Hypothesis. Demography, 38, 317-336.

An analysis of 1990 census data on the educational enrollment of 15- to 17- year-old immigrants to the United States provides partial support for predictions from both the segmented-assimilation hypothesis and the immigrant optimism hypothesis. Most immigrant adolescents, especially from Asia, are as likely as their native-born peers to be enrolled in high school, or more so. The "at-risk" immigrant youths with above-average levels of nonenrollment that are not reduced with longer exposure to American society are primarily of Hispanic Caribbean origins (from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba). Recent Mexican immigrants who arrived as teenagers have nonenrollment rates over 40%, but Mexican youths who arrived at younger ages are only somewhat less likely to be enrolled in school than are native-born Americans.

Charles Hirschman, Richard Alba, and Reynolds Farley. (2000). The Meaning and Measurement of Race in the U.S. Census: Glimpses in the Future. Demography, 37, 381-393. (Abbreviated and revised version is reprinted in Susan B. Carter and Richard Sutch. 2004. Historical Statistics of the United States. Cambridge University Press. )

The 1996 Racial and Ethnic Targeted Test (RAETT) was a "mail-out mail- back" household survey with an experimental design of eight alternative questionnaire formats containing systematic variations in race, instructions, question order, and other aspects of the measurement. The eight different questionnaires were administered to random subsamples of six "targeted" populations: geographic areas with ethnic concentrations of whites, blacks, American Indians, Alaskan natives, Asian and Pacific Islanders, and Hispanics. The major conclusion is that allowing multiple responses to the "race" question in the 2000 census (and other variations in measurement that were considered in RAETT) had only a slight impact on the measured racial composition of the population. Another finding was a dramatic reduction in nonresponse to the combined race/Hispanic-origin question relative to all other questionnaire formats. We conclude that the concept of "origins" may be closer to the popular understanding of American diversity than is the antiquated concept of race.

Charles Hirschman and C. Matthew Snipp. (1999). "The State of the American Dream: Race and Ethnic Inequality in the United States, 1970- 1990." In Phyllis Moen, Donna Dempster-McClain, and Henry Walker (eds.) A Nation Divided: Diversity, Inequality, and Community in American Society, pp. 89-107. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Reprinted in David B. Grusky. 2001. Social Stratification: Class, Race and Gender Sociological Perspective 2nd edition, pp. 623-636. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

An abstract for this publication is not available.

Charles Hirschman, Josh DeWind, and Philip Kasinitz (eds.). 1999. The Handbook of International Migration: The American Experience. (Author of "General Introduction" and "Part II Introduction.") New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

An abstract for this publication is not available.