Two Generations of Italians in America: Their Fertility Experience

Abstract

The level of fertility characterizing specific ethnic groups in American so? ciety may well be a key indicator of integration into the mainstream of national life and its value systems. Currently members of two large groups?Negroes and Mexican-Americans?have notably more children than the average American family. If we accept the argument that an excessively large number of children born into poor families is one of the most important perpetuating causes of poverty1 then it is not coincidental that these two groups also are generally considered the principal disadvantaged minorities in the nation. Similarly, looking back over the past century in American history a striking fact emerges: ethnic newcomers who were viewed as social problem groups almost invariably were characterized by a relatively high level of fertility. By and large, immi? grants whose children assimilated most effectively were those where the level of births among the second-generation population tended to approach that of the native American. Perhaps the most remarkable illustration of this phenomenon in the twentieth century has been the Italian-American experience. In the present period of emphasis on minor ethnic differentials and general fall from favor of the melting-pot theory, it may be particularly instructive to view the very dramatic pattern of fertility change that occurred among two generations of Italians in the United States.

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