TABLE 13. White male breadwinners of foreign parentage, classified by general 14. White male breadwinners of foreign parentage, classified by general 15. White female breadwinners of foreign parentage, classified by 16. Female breadwinners, classified by nationality and general nativity: Page. 802 802 803 804-806 17. Female breadwinners, classified by nationality and general nativity: 808, 809 18. Female breadwinners, classified by nationality and general nativity: 811, 812 19. Female bread winners, classified by nationality and general nativity: 814, 815 20. Female breadwinners, classified by nationality and general nativity: women.. 816, 817 21. Female breadwinners, classified by nationality and general nativity: Total number, and number and per cent employed as teachers. 819, 820 A. White male breadwinners of foreign parentage, classified by nationality (as determined by country of birth of parents) and general nativity: Number and per cent in each specified occupation... 821-829 B. White female bread winners of foreign parentage, classified by nationality (as determined by country of birth of parents) and general nativity: Number and per cent in each specified occupation.. 830-838 OCCUPATIONS OF THE FIRST AND SECOND GENERATIONS OF The purpose of this report is to show the difference between the first and second generations of immigrants as regards the occupations in which they engage. The term "first generation," as here used, is applied to those who are themselves immigrants-that is, were born in foreign countries. The term "second generation" is applied to those who are the native children of immigrants-that is, were born in this country of parents who were born abroad. The report is based upon original and unpublished data in possession of the Bureau of the Census. The tables presented give the number of breadwinners ten years of age or over in each generation, classified by occupation. The term "breadwinner" is here used to include everyone who is engaged in any gainful occupation. It includes the banker, therefore, as well as the bootblack. The figures are shown separately for each foreign nationality which can be distinguished upon the basis of census returns, the classification by nationality being a classification according to the country in which the parents were born. Thus an Italian, as the term is here used, means a person whose parents were born either both in Italy or one in Italy and the other in the United States. An Italian immigrant is classed as an Italian of the first generation, and it is probable that he, like his parents, was born in Italy, although he may have been born in some other foreign country. An Italian of the second generation means a person born in the United States whose parents, one or both, were immigrants born in Italy. Of course this classification, based on the country in which parents were born, is not equivalent to a classification by race. Austria, for instance, includes a number of diverse races. But these can not be distinguished on the basis of census returns. We know that comparatively few of the natives of Russia who migrate to the United States are Russians in the ethnical sense of the word. The great majority of them are racially classed as Hebrews, Poles, and Lithuanians. In other cases, however, the country of birth practically defines the races. This is true of such countries as Ireland, Scotland, France, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, the inhabitants of each of these countries being mainly homogeneous as regards race. From the classification by country of birth the census of 1900, however, made two rather important deviations: It separated the Poles-defined as persons who speak Polish and were born in what was formerly Poland-from the other natives of Austria, Prussia, and Russia; and it distinguished between the French Canadians and the English Canadians in the case of persons born in Canada. 72289°-VOL 1-11-50 777 The subject of this report is presented first by occupations or occupation groups, with a view to readily determining the differences among foreign nationalities as regards their representation in certain typical or important occupations. This forms Part I of the complete report. In Part II of the complete report the occupational classification is presented by nationalities, so as to bring together the occupational data relating to each nationality. The summary herewith presented consists of an abstract or condensation of Part I, followed by two tables (A and B), which show the occupational classification of each nationality. Lack of space forbids any attempt to summarize the text comment and analysis contained in Part II of the full report. MALE BREADWINNERS. The following table shows the number of male breadwinners in the first and second generations of each of the nationalities distinguished in the census occupational statistics: TABLE 1.-White male breadwinners of foreign parentage, classified by nationality and general nativity: Number and per cent distribution. Some of these nationalities are represented by very small numbers in the second generation as compared with the first. This is notably true as regards the Austrians, the Hungarians, the Italians, the Poles, and the Russians. It results from the fact that the immigration of these nationalities is of comparatively recent origin, so that the second generation at present consists principally of children and young persons, few of whom are old enough to take up an occupation. As regards some of these nationalities it might be said indeed that there is no second generation as yet, but only the beginnings of a second generation or a second generation not yet grown up. Nevertheless the figures, meager though they are, afford some indication of the start which the second generation is making. But in drawing comparisons with the first generation the youthfulness of the second generation should be borne in mind, it being a factor which tends to give an undue prominence to those occupations in which children are commonly employed. As a result of these variations in the relative size of the two generations the racial composition of the first generation of foreign breadwinners differs in a marked degree from that of the second. Thus of the first generation of male breadwinners of foreign origin, 26.1 per cent are Germans and 14.6 per cent are Irish; while in the second generation these percentages are much larger, the percentage of Germans being 36 and that of Irish, 26.3. The first generation, therefore, is 40.7 per cent Irish and German, the second 62.3 per cent. Accordingly the characteristics of the Irish and Germans have more influence upon the second generation, taken as a whole, than upon the first. On the other hand, the Italians, Poles, and Russians constitute, respectively, 5.7, 3.7, and 3.9 per cent of the first generation, as compared with 0.4, 0.6, and 0.4 per cent of the second generation. In the aggregate these three nationalities represent 13.3 per cent of the first generation and only 1.4 per cent of the second. Because of this difference in the racial composition of the two generations it becomes difficult to determine the significance of the difference between the two generations as regards the occupations which they follow unless the comparison is made for each nationality separately. This could not be done upon the basis of any published census figures; therefore it was deemed desirable to go back to the original data in order to make these classifications by nationality. The results of that work are presented in this report. In the table which is appended (pp. 821-829), the male breadwinners in the first and in the second generations of each nationality are classified by occupations. The census classification distinguishes 140 different occupations or occupation groups. In the text which follows, attention is directed to some of the more important occupation groups, the first group considered being that composed of persons returned by the census as "laborers (not specified)." Other occupation groups are discussed in the order here named: Miners; iron and steel workers; textile-mill operatives; the building trades; clerical pursuits; salesmen, agents, and commercial travelers; professional pursuits; agriculture. GENERAL LABORERS. In the United States census persons returned as laborers, or day laborers, or general laborers, without specification of the kind of work on which employed, were classified under the designation "laborers (not specified)." Probably this indicates, as a rule, employment in unskilled manual labor requiring only ordinary intelligence and commanding comparatively low wages. About one-tenth of the total number of male breadwinners enumerated by the census are in this occupation group. Among the foreign-born, or immigrants, the percentage of general laborers (14.4) is much higher than among the native white Americans. But among the native white of foreign parentage the per centage (8.6) is not much larger than it is among the native white of native parentage (8), the small difference suggesting that the children of foreigners are not much more disposed or constrained to earn their living by unskilled manual labor than are the children of native Americans. But this statement does not hold good of all sections and communities. In the large cities the native white whose parents were foreigners by birth are employed as general laborers to a much greater extent than the native white whose parents were native Americans; in the smaller cities and country districts there is less difference between these classes in this respect. But everywhere the proportion of laborers is greater among the foreign-born, or immigrants, than among either class of native white; and in general these three classes appear to be more sharply differentiated in the city than in the country. The following table gives the percentage of laborers in the first and second generations for each of the principal nationalities that can be distinguished on the basis of census returns: TABLE 2.-Male breadwinners, classified by nationality and general nativity: Total number, and number and per cent employed as laborers. • Includes also the few foreign-born white whose parents were natives of the United States. 23,097 2,200 9.5 881,896 58,760 6.7 439,031 28,261 6.4 442,865 30, 499 6.9 106,583 8,355 7.8 51,431 4,004 7.8 55, 152 4,351 7.9 |