Minority Group Status as a Factor in the Relationship between Mobility and Fertility: The Mexican American Case

Abstract

This paper sets forth contrasting hypotheses about the influence of racial and ethnic group membership on the relationship between mobility and fertility. One may be termed the minority group status approach, and the other the underdevelopment approach. Both perspectives offer bases for predicting fertility levels that deviate from the level that is roughly the average of the fertility levels typical of the social strata between which mobility has occurred. But the former implies greater fertility deviations the more integrated the minority group is into the larger society, whereas the latter suggests greater deviations the less integrated the minority group is into the larger society. These ideas are tested using data from a sample of Mexican American couples, split according to generational distance from Mexico. The results indicate more support for the minority group status than the underdevelopment hypothesis, as revealed by lower than average expected fertility on the part of couples removed at least three generations from Mexico.

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