THE OLD-NEW DISTINCTION AND IMMIGRANTS IN AUSTRALIA.

The old-new theory of differences between European groups in their adaptation and assimilation in the United States is applied to the large-scale immigration in Australia after World War II. Since Australia, unlike the United States, first received sizable numbers of many northwestern and southeastern European groups at the same time, it is possible to test the validity of the theory when the groups are established at corn parable periods in a society otherwise similar to the United States. As many as 9 old and 19 new groups are studied in terms of 14 indicators of work force characteristics, spatial segregation, amalgamation, and social problems. With the exceptions of urban segregation, location in rural areas, and inter- marriage, the Mann-Whitney test fails to support the hypothesis when extraneous factors such as length of residence and age distributions of the groups are taken into account through standardization. These findings suggest both severe limitations in the generality of the old-new theory as well as the possibility that much of the old-new variance in the United States reflected differences in the group? timing of arrival rather than cultural differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]