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This paper describes cultural changes which have occurred since pioneer days in a rural, east Wisconsin German ethnic island. The social process is considered in terms of cultural history, geography, mobility, and enmeshment of the area in the dominant American culture. To determine the nature and degree of changes in ethnic values and attitudes, attention is focused on farming methods, family functions, and cultural conflict. The area has succeeded in making easy adjustments to the American situation and has remained a stable society largely for the following reasons: a traditional pattern of a diversified agriculture, coupled with a willingness to experiment and to conserve soil fertility, a climate and soil suited to this type of farming, acceptance of dairying to assure a cash income, a unique local outlet for excess farm produce, familism, settlement in a large compact group, and contact with an urban culture quite similar to its own. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A partial explanation of high divorce rates in certain areas and states of the United States has been offered for many years by the claim of a "frontier atmosphere" in existence that is conducive towards divorce in these locations. This paper seeks to operationalize this concept and subject it to empirical testing by relating intra and in-migration rates of states to divorce rates. A resonably high positive correlation is found to exist between the two types of rates and it is suggested that an explanation of this relationship may be found in the comparatively lower social costs attached to divorce in states having high migration rates as compared to states having low migration rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the immigration and population trends in the U.S. during 1900-1940. The primary purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the population trends mentioned above and the present restrictive immigration control. Another reason for making the present study is that the problem of post-war immigration is receiving the attention of the Congress. From the tenor of the bills already proposed, it would appear that future immigration may be further restricted. Population growth in the country, prior to the restrictive quota acts of 1921 and 1924, had been closely related to European emigration. During this period, 1900-1940, net immigration of aliens contributed approximately 12,000,000 or over 20 per cent of the total population increase of 56,000,000. Between July 1, 1900, and July 1, 1924, the effective date of the current quota act, net immigration amounted to 10,700,000 or 89.1 per cent of the total net immigration figure for the entire forty-year period.

The literature suggests a distinction between the instrumental adjustment and the social integration components of adaptation by rural migrants to new environments. Using an index measuring both formal and informal social contacts with natives, the integration process was plotted over time through a cross-sectional analysis of 688 residences for a sample of rural migrants from Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Results suggest that the integration of contemporary rural migrants in new settings is a relatively rapid process. However, our data show that integration is inhibited when: 1) the destination community is large; 2) the migrants have low initial socioeconomic status; and, 3) kin are present in the receiving area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the study of immigration and assimilation in the United States. The immigration to the U.S. has greatly reduced due to the immigration laws enacted in the 1920s. Assimilation has been analyzed with reference to the dissimilarity of foreign-born and second generation fertility patterns. The foreign-born population in the United States exhibits different fertility than the native Americans. Fertility has been chosen as the indicator of assimilation, because it is essentially a familial variable, and the family, is generally recognized to be a basic unit of society, one of the most stable social institutions, and less variable than material culture. Thus, if generational change toward the modal American fertility patterns were to be noted here, it would constitute an indicator of a more personally committed stance toward the host society than some of the more superficial indices of assimilation, such as dress, naturalization, or speech. The degree to which the second generation adopts the family values of the host society, when compared with the degree to which the family values of the foreign-born generation are retained, yields an indication of the amount of assimilation by the second generation.

This article reports an attempt to test the basic assumption that the desire to migrate is inversely related to the degree of satisfaction with the home community, and some related factors on a sample of potential migrants, namely, high school seniors in a rural area of Michigan. It presents a study of the migration attitudes of farm youth from rural areas with relatively high outmigration. It examines some of the social-psychological aspects of migration, which have received relatively less attention than demographic factors. More specifically, this study, examines the residential, occupational, and educational plans of a sample of high school seniors from four rural counties of central Michigan. The focus of this article is the anticipated migration behavior of rural high school seniors about to graduate. In the spring of 1958 a self-administered questionnaire, designed to elicit information on community satisfaction, occupational, residential, and educational aspirations was submitted to the 545 respondents in this study.

Although economic, political, and religious conditions were the chief reasons for early migrations, recent migrations have been chiefly economic in basis. Rather than migration for permanent settlement, migration today is often internal and temporary. It is frequently a work pattern in which the migrants return to a place of origin that is their home. It is, therefore, an adjustment to the economic conditions and natural environment of the country. It may be surprising to some to learn that the national economy is firmly supported by migrant labor, for the needs of farms and industry are partly supplied by it. The people who think this class should be employed in permanent local jobs may be even more surprised to know that migrants are too few in number to satisfy the demand. Without them, the harvesting and cultivation of much of the acreage in fruits, vegetables, and field crops such as cotton, sugar beets, and hops would be impossible. The typical migrant is a family man, emotionally mature, morally sound, and with no other purpose in mind than to earn a living for himself and his family. He is a migrant worker for any number of reasons, perhaps a foreclosure on his property by banks, his displacement by farm machinery or shifts in farm economy, population pressure on an inadequate resource base, and even climatic and natural disasters that may have destroyed his home and property. It may be, too, that he has merely made a work adjustment to the seasonal nature of specialized crops within his home area. The latter is what happened in Florida.

The town of Tecolotlan, Jalisco contains generic features of culture and society which are roughly representative of the many communities from which Mexicans migrated to the United States. A mestizo, Spanish speaking community, Tecolothlan is a farming center with some small household industries. Over the past forty years it has undergone a number of changes incidental to the transformations of the system of land tenure, and the development of altered means of transportation. The change from economic and political domination by large haciendas to partial ascendency of agrarian communities has altered the form, if not the significance, of social stratification. Major segments of institutional arrangements, such as education and the schools, religion and the church, and the family are briefly analyzed and their functional roles are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Living standards are low in Eastern Kentucky; a rough area with limited economic opportunity. People migrate from this area when jobs are available in industrial centers. The first extended migration was during World War I. When the depression came, most of these people returned to the old home because of small land holdings, family ties, or the possibility of securing relief. Now, during World War II, some thirty per cent of the people have again left the region to find work. One-hall of these plan to return while the other fifty per cent prefer to reside permanently outside the area. The number who Will become permanent emigrants is important to the economic future of the Mountains. If the current migration follows the pattern of the preceding one, most of those who left during the past four years will return, when the next depression becomes acute. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Rural Sociology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Rural Sociology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The purpose of the study was to determine the proportion of German stock in the total population in Minnesota for the years, 1860 and 1870. German stock included German-born persons from Europe and American-born children of German parents. The sources of the data were the manuscript census lists of 1860 and 1870. The difficulties of such a handcount are discussed. A sample of the technique of listing and excerpting the data is given. The percentages of German stock are shown for the smallest workable units, i.e., the townships, in six different shades on two maps. The original maps were drawn on a larger scale than that of the reproductions. Carto-graphic techniques for population maps arc explained. The maps renal that German pioneers concentrated around the bend of the Minnesota River. German population centers were in Carver, Sibley, Nicollet, and Brown Counties. The same townships in Caner, Sibley, and Brown Counties showed heavy percentages in 1860 as well as in 1870, thus demonstrating that Germans preferred to settle among Germans rather than to move with the frontier. Religious influence was significant in Stearns County. The data from the study provide a basis for further research, such as dealing with factors conditioning settlement, routes used by emigrants, occupational distribution of this nationality, and others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An investigation of the activities of Troop B of the Massachusetts State Police in a rural area indicates that a significant percentage of the crimes committed in that area are committed by "migrant" criminals, that is, those either not resident in the area at all or not resident in the town in which the crime occurs. When the area of authority and control coincides with, or is larger than, the area of residence of the criminals, efficient crime control is possible. Centralization of control in any organization, if it leads to a coincidence of the area of operations and the area of authority, may lead to a crystallization of relationships in those areas which in turn may promote efficiency of operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The westward surge and rebound of immigrants to Kansas in the last half of the nineteenth century was followed by constant shifts of population from higher to lower density areas, and from rigorous pioneer activities to the more convenient and less strenuous life in the settled regions which were due in large part to the effect of the topography, climate, rainfall, and natural vegetation in the three demographic subregions within the state. Successive stages of community development as well as varied cultures and different occupational and personality types have accompanied these population shifts from region to region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the certain "laws" of migration in the light of some principles of migration applied to American migrants to Shanghai, China. There are some types of migration in which there is no possibility of the approach being a gradual one. The leap from Europe or America to China is a long one. A great seaport of a widely divergent culture presents to alien migrants a situation almost wholly novel to which they are forced to adapt themselves, or return home, or perish. Shanghai has also been the starting point for many groups of Chinese students who have gone abroad to study. The exclusion law of the U.S. is a factor strongly inhibiting a greater countercurrent of migration out of the Oriental seaport, Shanghai in recent years. It has been seen that, the Chinese who have gone from Shanghai to the U.S. have done so because aliens have entered the city and displaced the natives. As for the Americans who migrate to Shanghai and then return to their homeland, there is a selective process going on. It is unlikely that many Americans, turning their backs upon the U.S., go to Shanghai determined to make it their adopted home and China their country.

This article provides information on the historical background of California farm labor. During less than a century of agricultural history, the rural work of California has been performed successively by ranch hands, by farm hands, and by semi-industrialized proletarians. During the past 40 years, the significant feature of California agriculture has been, not the expansion of the area under cultivation, but intensification of the use of areas already cultivated. The intensification of agriculture accounts not only for the large percentage of farm laborers in California. It is responsible, also, for the long line of immigrant nationalities which have played so large a role in the agriculture of the state. The Oriental and the Mexican groups stand apart not only because of their wide participation in intensive agriculture, but also because of their lack of participation in the older forms of farming. The use of alien workers on California farms has markedly complicated the adjustment of economic and human relations in agriculture.

Discusses a study on the settlement patterns of Canadian emigrants to the U.S. from 1850 to 1960. Distribution of Canadian-born living in the U.S.; Approaches to the analysis of labor mobility patterns; Comparison of French-speaking and English-speaking migrants.

Discusses the use of radio and journalism in disseminating child development information in the U.S. Cultural breakdowns to the transportation and communication media; Consequences of the acculturation of European immigrants for the welfare of second generation children; Consideration of the degree of uniformity of child training customs.

A persistent finding of the U.S. acculturation studies has been a direct relationship between occupation or social status and acculturation. In a study investigating the acculturation of Hungarian immigrants, the author of the present article collected data bearing on this problem. The article makes use of illustrative material from an earlier study. The process of acculturation is functional within the social framework, since one of the main objects of social systems is to assure cultural conformity and minimize conflict. The proposed theory of acculturation advances an explanation mainly in terms of the social system, in as much as the concept of role elements emphasizes external demands rather than motivations. The U.S. society in all probability would have disintegrated if immigrants of past hundred years had not assimilated. A practical conclusion from this discussion is that if immigrants have to be acculturated to the U.S., its social structure must be sufficiently open so as to offer them upward occupational mobility. Another possible implication is the importance of high achievement motivation and acquisitive value orientation for acculturating to the U.S.

This article focuses on the Mexican immigrant worker in Southwestern agriculture. Agriculture's demand for Mexican labor is very great but also variable, and is limited to certain seasons of the year and to certain parts of the country. Early in spring arises the demand for labor to work the land and to do the other tasks in the regions where the climate is mild. During the summer and principally in July and August, the demand is at its peak, for then the crops need the greatest number of hands. In Texas and California and some other states of the Southwest, the demand for labor continues to the beginning or middle of Autumn, as some crops last to the end of this season. In December, the demand for such labor entirely stops and large groups of workers find themselves obliged to return to Mexico, while others remain in the United States, especially in parts of Texas and the Southwest, where the winters are less severe. The Texas Valley has always had alien labor. The whole economy was built on cheap labor and good soil, and the farmers in the valley do not intend to change the basis of the economy. On the other hand, regardless of any laws passed on either side of the border, the pain will not be legislated out of the empty stomach of the poor Mexican.

Some characteristics dud attitudes of 100 middle-class families, recent migrants to a California metropolitan area, were sampled by questionnaire. The respondents had a history of frequent moves on short notice and reported that they settled into new communities quickly and without apparent difficulty. The sample showed a higher than anticipated level of independence, self- reliance, and ability to adapt to what is often considered a tension- and stress-producing situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]