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Immigrants and the American City
IMMIGRANTS AND THE AMERICAN CITY
THOMAS MULLER
A Twentieth Century Fund Book
The Twentieth Century Fund is a research foundation undertaking timely analyses of economic, political, and social issues. Not-for-profit and nonpartisan, the Fund was founded in 1919 and endowed by Edward A. Filene.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY FUND
Morris B. Abram, Emeritus
H. Brandt Ayers
Peter A. A. Berle
Jos A. Cabranes
Joseph A. Califano, Jr.
Alexander Morgan Capron
Hodding Carter III
Edward E. David, Jr.
Brewster C. Denny, Chairman
Charles V. Hamilton
August Heckscher, Emeritus
Matina S. Horner
Lewis B. Kaden
Madeleine May Kunin
James A. Leach
Richard C. Leone, ex officio
P. Michael Pitfield
Don K. Price, Emeritus
Richard Ravitch
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Emeritus
Harvey I. Sloane, M.D.
Theodore C. Sorensen
James Tobin, Emeritus
David B. Truman, Emeritus
Shirley Williams
William Julius Wilson
Richard C. Leone, President
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Muller, Thomas, 1933
Immigrants and the American city / Thomas E. Muller.
p. cm.
A Twentieth Century Fund book.
Includes bibliographic references and index.
ISBN 0-8147-5479-1 (cl. : alk. paper)
1. United StatesEmigration and immigrationEconomic aspectsHistory. 2. United StatesEmigration and ImmigrationHistory. 3. Cities and townsUnited StatesHistory. I. Title.
JV6471.M85 1993
304.873dc20
92-8934
CIP
Cover Design and Illustration: Claude Goodwin
Manufactured in the United States of America.
Copyright 1993 by the Twentieth Century Fund, Inc.
To Sharon, Steven, Beth, and Joseph, with affection
Foreword
America has been a work in progress for most of its history. Yet Americans always have been ambivalent about change. Almost from colonial times, there has been a yearning for a lyrical past, when we were a less diverse, simpler country. All highly industrialized nations, of course, have experienced immense shifts of population from rural to urban areas. But only the United States has achieved a farm efficiency that requires just 2 percent of the population to work the land. So, it is not surprising that there is a nostalgia for all the small towns that have been left behind. Moreover, modernization has altered America by the introduction of mass media and the dissemination of new notions about sex, family, and religion. These developments all create uneasiness and uncertainty.
In addition, in an important sense, Americans have and continue to live with an element of change that exceeds that of virtually any other nation. For the United States is the one state founded upon and, more or less, continuously willing to accept significant waves of diverse immigrants. Yet, while the idea of who is a normal American has altered with time, there is, paradoxically, a persistent strain of nativism that craves a return to a time when almost everyone was, so to speak, like us.
Today, discussions of the nation and its future usually are in terms of economics and the post cold war. Our political and media leaders are relatively united in the view that future threats to the nation involve Americas struggle to meet the challenge of increased international economic competition. Our new president, quite properly, has pointed to the need to invest in our people as a key determinant of our ultimate success in that struggle. But, there is an alternative and unpleasant strain of political rhetoric that often uses code words to blame our competitive decline on particular groups or on the changing composition of the population. The fact is that most Americans dont yet know what to make of the groups that have comprised the lions share of immigration over the last generation.
Like other groups arriving throughout the twentieth century, the newest Americans have settled disproportionately in urban areas. The difference is that the economic future of many of our largest cities is much more in doubt than was previously the case. This uncertainty surely adds a new element to the uneasiness felt by many about the impact of recent immigration. Yet, despite the importance of this movement of peoples, serious research and discussion of the subject is still at a relatively early stage of development. No consensus about the effects of this new wave of immigrants on our cities and our nation has yet emerged.
With this fact in mind, the Twentieth Century Fund was pleased to commission Thomas Muller, a former staff member of the Urban Institute and a frequent consultant to government agencies, to research and write about immigration and the American City. We believe that Mr. Muller has succeeded in greatly sharpening our understanding of the changes being wrought in our cities by these newest Americans.
As Muller powerfully argues, we are, in fact, in the midst of one of the great waves of immigration in our history. While it is a commonplace to note the non-European origins of some of these groups, we are just beginning to realize that, like those who came before them, this group of new Americans is providing a wellspring of innovation and talent for our cities. What has changed, of course, is the cities themselves. For it is far from clear that our older urban centers will be reborn as the central engines of economic and political progress in the nation. Going forward, our capacity to understand and perhaps shape a policy response to these changes will be greatly enhanced by Mullers work. On behalf of the Funds Trustees, I thank him for his contribution to scholarship in this area.
Richard C. Leone, President
The Twentieth Century Fund
November 1992
Acknowledgments
This book would not have been possible without the financial and other assistance provided by The Twentieth Century Fund. The late director M. J. Rossant gave the project initial guidance, and Beverly Goldberg, vice president, director of publications, applied her many talents to turn the initial draft into a final product. My thanks are also extended to two editors, Michael Massing, on behalf of the Twentieth Century Fund, and Steven Greenfield at the Fund, for their skillful editing, which enhanced the quality of the book. The favorable comments by Henry G. Cisneros, Leo F. Estrada, and Professor Nathan Glazer facilitated the approval of the project. Professor Kenneth Boulding reviewed the early manuscript, and his insightful suggestions, as always, were invaluable. Ms. Helen Arnold deserves praise for her infinite patience and library assistance. Finally, the typing skills of Ms. Virginia Murray assured a readable manuscript.
