Effects of military service in WW II on the Franco-American community of New England
Blogger's Comment: Dear readers, with the three newspaper articles that I referred you to in my last three blog entries (yesterday), I attempted to highlight and pay tribute to the commitment and sacrifices made by Franco-Americans from New England during World War II, and to also reflect the pain of the loss endured by ordinary people in Lowell (Mass.) and its vicinity (regardless of whether they are Franco-Americans or not) within the context of the present conflicts in Irak and Afghanistan.
Readers who are interested to read what I would describe as a brief sociological and economic analysis of the effects of military service in WW II on the Franco-American community, may wish to consult the following article by Mary MacKinnon and Daniel Parent, who both are members of McGill University's Economics Department (URL http://www.mcgill.ca/economics/faculty/ ):
- MacKinnon, Mary and Parent, Daniel, "Resisting the Melting Pot: The Long Term Impact of Maintaining Identity for Franco-Americans in New England" (June 2005). CIRPEE Working Paper No. 05-17. This article can be downloaded, free of charge, from the following site: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=739627#PaperDownload
As you can see in the abstract (which I have reproduced below, with emphasis in bold characters), the article covers much more than the impact of WW II on the F-A community, and in fact captures much of the history of that community in New England.
At the time I am writing this blog entry, the site that I am referring you to indicates that this paper has been downloaded only 15 times since it was posted (this is in addition to 294 "views"). I find that somewhat disconcerting, if not downright disappointing. It seems to me that this subject deserves much more interest in the academic community and in the public in general...
Maybe you, dear readers, can do something about that...
Regards / Amitiés,
JB
BEGINNING OF CITED TEXT
Abstract:
The scale of the persistent, concentrated immigration from Mexico is a source of concern to many in the United States. The perception is that Mexicans are not assimilating into mainstream America as previous generations of immigrants did. In this paper, we look at the emigration of approximately 1 million French-Canadians who moved to the United States, with the bulk of the migration occurring between the end of the Civil War and 1930 and with most settling in neighboring New England. What makes this episode particularly interesting is the fact that the French-Canadian immigrants exerted considerable efforts to maintain their language and to replicate their home century institutions, most notably the schooling system, in their new country. This explicit resistance to assimilation generated considerable attention and concern in the U.S. over many years. The concerns are strikingly similar to those often invoked today in discussions of policy options regarding immigration from hispanic countries, notably Mexico. We look at the convergence in the educational attainment of French Canadian immigrants across generations relative to native English-speaking New Englanders and to other immigrants. The educational attainment of Franco-Americans lagged that of their fellow citizens over a long period of time. Yet, by the time of the 2000 Census, they eventually, if belatedly, appeared to have largely achieved parity. Additionally, we show that military service was a very important factor contributing to the assimilation process through a variety of related channels, namely educational attainment, language assimilation, marrying outside the ethnic group, and moving out of New England. Finally, when we compare Franco-Americans to French-speaking Canadians of the same generations, it is clear that Franco-Americans substantially upgraded their educational attainment relative to what it would have been if they had not emigrated. This suggests that the pull factor eventually exerted a dominating influence.
END OF CITED TEXT
Readers who are interested to read what I would describe as a brief sociological and economic analysis of the effects of military service in WW II on the Franco-American community, may wish to consult the following article by Mary MacKinnon and Daniel Parent, who both are members of McGill University's Economics Department (URL http://www.mcgill.ca/economics/faculty/ ):
- MacKinnon, Mary and Parent, Daniel, "Resisting the Melting Pot: The Long Term Impact of Maintaining Identity for Franco-Americans in New England" (June 2005). CIRPEE Working Paper No. 05-17. This article can be downloaded, free of charge, from the following site: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=739627#PaperDownload
As you can see in the abstract (which I have reproduced below, with emphasis in bold characters), the article covers much more than the impact of WW II on the F-A community, and in fact captures much of the history of that community in New England.
At the time I am writing this blog entry, the site that I am referring you to indicates that this paper has been downloaded only 15 times since it was posted (this is in addition to 294 "views"). I find that somewhat disconcerting, if not downright disappointing. It seems to me that this subject deserves much more interest in the academic community and in the public in general...
Maybe you, dear readers, can do something about that...
Regards / Amitiés,
JB
BEGINNING OF CITED TEXT
Abstract:
The scale of the persistent, concentrated immigration from Mexico is a source of concern to many in the United States. The perception is that Mexicans are not assimilating into mainstream America as previous generations of immigrants did. In this paper, we look at the emigration of approximately 1 million French-Canadians who moved to the United States, with the bulk of the migration occurring between the end of the Civil War and 1930 and with most settling in neighboring New England. What makes this episode particularly interesting is the fact that the French-Canadian immigrants exerted considerable efforts to maintain their language and to replicate their home century institutions, most notably the schooling system, in their new country. This explicit resistance to assimilation generated considerable attention and concern in the U.S. over many years. The concerns are strikingly similar to those often invoked today in discussions of policy options regarding immigration from hispanic countries, notably Mexico. We look at the convergence in the educational attainment of French Canadian immigrants across generations relative to native English-speaking New Englanders and to other immigrants. The educational attainment of Franco-Americans lagged that of their fellow citizens over a long period of time. Yet, by the time of the 2000 Census, they eventually, if belatedly, appeared to have largely achieved parity. Additionally, we show that military service was a very important factor contributing to the assimilation process through a variety of related channels, namely educational attainment, language assimilation, marrying outside the ethnic group, and moving out of New England. Finally, when we compare Franco-Americans to French-speaking Canadians of the same generations, it is clear that Franco-Americans substantially upgraded their educational attainment relative to what it would have been if they had not emigrated. This suggests that the pull factor eventually exerted a dominating influence.
END OF CITED TEXT
posted by Jacques Boudreau at 9:32 AM
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