This article investigates the integration of various generations of Chicano children into the United States political system. Specifically, it focuses upon the assimilation and acculturation of the...

The Political Integration of Mexican American Children: A Generational Analysis:

The Mexican American electorate includes large numbers of immigrants as well as people of later generations. In this article, we test whether cross-generational acculturation shapes the ways in which Mexican American voters selected between John Kerry and George Bush in the 2004 presidential election. Although change across immigrant generations has long been a critical question in American political behavior, it is only with the current wave of immigrants and their U.S.-born children and grandchildren that it is possible to measure the relationship between acculturation and vote choice. With generational replacement, changes in the dynamics of vote choice across immigrant generations could herald long-term changes in the mechanisms of vote choice. We find that generation does shape Mexican American vote choice, both directly—in the simple measure of the generational dummy variables—and in the interaction between generation and partisanship, issue evaluation, religion, and state of residence.

Immigrant and Native Mexican American Presidential Vote Choice Across Immigrant Generations

The development of a self-report measure of acculturation in Greek-Americans began with item construction in three systematic steps. First, four first-generation Greek-American judges who were familiar with both Greek-American and Anglo-American cultures were asked to generate separate lists of cultural beliefs and practices along seven dimensions on which Anglo-Americans and Greek-Americans differ. Second, the most commonly listed beliefs and practices identified by the judges were included in a pilot inventory. Here, three Greek-American judges rated the accuracy of items as measures of Greek-American acculturation. Third, a 44-item revised inventory of items that had the highest mean ratings (content validation) showed good construct and concurrent validity among Greek-Americans.

The Greek-American Acculturation Scale: Development and Validity:

In theory, social integration is considered one of the important aspects of assimilation?often referred to as social assimilation. For Eisenstadt, integration is called \"institutional dispersion\", and it entails the extension of the immigrants' institutional and associational participation in the main spheres of the social system of the receiving society (1954:13). Gordon emphasizes integration at the primary group level and terms it \"structural assimilation\" which entails the entrance of the immigrants into social cliques, clubs, and institutions of the host society (1964:70-71). The extension of the immigrants' relations outside their own group to include members of the receiving society is considered an important feature of the newcomers' adaptation and orientation toward the new country. On the other hand, lack of participation in the institutional activities of the receiving society, on the part of the immigrants, is viewed as indicative of the continuing maintenance of a separate social identity (Eisenstadt, 1954:78, 11-13; Warner and Srole, 1945:149-150). Empirical studies in the field of social assimilation, especially in the United States, have dealt with the integration of immigrants in a variety of spheres of the American life including the ecological and political systems, the socioeconomic system, mass media, religion, family and friendships, to name some (Macisco, 1968; Myers, 1950; Duncan and Lieberson, 1959; Lieberson, 1963; Glick, 1942; Vlachos, 1968; Sengstock, 1969; Kourvetaris, 1971; Drakopoulou, 1974; Rogg, 1974; Hurh and Kim, 1984; Humphrey and Louis, 1973; Yu, 1971). The bulk of studies reviewed, however, are

Differential Social Integration among First Generation Greeks in New York: Participation in Religious Institutions.

This study examines differential integration of recent Greek immigrants into the religious structure of the Greek community vis-a-vis the American community of New York City. It also examines the t...

Differential Social Integration among First Generation Greeks in New York

This research examines the role of ethnicity in the voting behavior of GreekAmericans residing in a metropolitan community of the southeastern United States. More specifically, it focuses on intergenerational differences in the rela? tionship between ethnicity ? the feeling of "we-ness" among an immigrant group ? and ethnic voting, here defined as support of an ethnic candidate and traditional affiliation with a political party. Such a relationship is pertinent among Greek-Americans because the 1968 presidential election offered Spiro T. Agnew, a Greek-American, running on a Republican ticket when the majority of his fellow ethnics are Democrats. Consequently, this situation offers an op? portunity to study the relationship between ethnicity and voting along with other important variables, including social mobility, generation, and age.1

Helen Brock Louis

Papers

Assimilation and Voting Behavior: A Study of Greek-Americans