The Economic Adaptation of Past and Present Immigrants: Lessons from a Comparative-Historical Approach

The essay comparatively examines the contexts and mechanisms of the economic integration of turn-of-the-twentieth-century and contemporary immigrants in the United States. The explanatory strategy used in this assessment falls in-between two strategies of sociohistorical enquiry specified John Hall (1999), namely, particularizing reconstruction of specific histories and generalizing contrast-oriented comparison. The configuration of circumstances shaping immigrants’ economic integration considered in this investigation includes conditions at four levels: (i)the positioning of sender and receiver societies in the global economy and geopolitics; (ii)the dynamics of the economy, immigration policies, and civic culture of the receiver society; (iii)immigrants’ local communities (surrounding and intragroup); and (iv)immigrants’ individual characteristics.