Assimilation Among Urban Chicanos: A Structural And Cultural Analysis.

This study explores the postulated relationships between structural attainment (i.e., occupational and educational status and Duncan's Social Economic Index scores) and Chicano cultural consciousness, familism, associational consciousness, and ethnic identity. Its central questions are: (1) what is the present status of Mexican culture in Detroit?; (2) is structural attainment incompatible with a Chicano cultural orientation and identification?; and (3) which symbolic and material manifestations of Mexican culture are likely to change with structural attainment? Because any sample survey treatment of such dynamic processes would be incomplete and superficial without a historical perspective, a historical sketch of the Mexican presence in Michigan and Detroit is presented. A pilot study of the National Study of Chicano Identity and Mental Health (supported by Grant No. 30244 from the Center for Minority Group Mental Health Programs of the National Institute for Mental Health) served as the source of the survey data for this study. The data are from a sample of 82 Mexican-origin households representative of two census tracts comprising the Mexican community in Detroit, Michigan, which has the second largest metropolitan concentration of people of Mexican descent in the Midwest. Occupation, education, and social economic status constituted the independent variables of this study. The major dependent variables selected covered the following dimensions of Chicano culture: (1) cultural consciousness; (2) familism; (3) associational consciousness; and (4) social identity (ethnic, familial, and class). In order to condense the data and make it more manageable for analysis, these variables were factor analyzed and indexes were created. Contrary to the early predictions of Humphrey (1943) and McWilliams (1948) that Mexican culture in Detroit was destined to oblivion, this study shows a strong Mexican cultural consciousness and commitment among Detroit Chicanos. The results of this study also refute the assimilation hypothesis that erosion of Mexican culture and ethnic identity is inevitable with structural attainment. For example, it was found that the highest educational group engaged significantly more frequently than the lowest educational group in the following measures of behavioral familism: (1) household aid and (2) non-household aid. A remarkably high level of normative familism was found to prevail, despite the assimilationist pressures of a large Midwestern city. In other words, almost everybody in our sample believed in the importance of frequent family contact and family cohesiveness. However, the more educated were more assimilated in terms of our measures of cultural consciousness. Yet we found that values and behavior concerning the family run to the core of the culture and are more resistant to change. Education was found to be the most significant structural attainment variable. Assimilation and the results of the present study are interpreted from a dialectical perspective. The small size and the homogeneity of the sample as well as the employment of a single methodological approach (survey) prevented us from fully appreciating and understanding the social phenomenon of assimilation. A larger and varied sample as well as an ethnographic approach is needed in order for us to more adequately understand the relationships between social mobility and ethnicity. Nevertheless, the present study strongly suggests that one can structurally attain and still retain a Mexican ethnic orientation and identification.Ph.D.PsychologySocial psychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/127555/2/8025760.pd