The Twilight of Ethnicity Among American Catholics of European Ancestry

• Author: Richard D. Alba
• DOI: 10.1177/000271628145400108
• Published date: 01 March 1981
• Date: 01 March 1981
• Subject Matter: Articles

86

The

Twilight

of

Ethnicity

Among

American

Catholics

of

European

Ancestry

By

RICHARD

D.

ALBA

Richard

D.

Alba

is

an

associate

professor

of sociology

at

the

State

University

of

New

York

at

Albany.

He

received

his Ph.D.

from

Columbia

University

in

1974

and

has

taught

at

the

City

University

of

New

York

and

Cornell

University.

He

is

the

author

of a

number

of

articles

on

ethnicity,

which

have

appeared

in

the

American

Sociological

Review,

Harvard

Educational

Review,

Society,

on

the

New

York

Times’s

Op-Ed

Page,

and

elsewhere.

He

has

recently

coauthored

a

book,

Right

Versus

Privilege:

The

Open

Admissions

Experiment

at

the

City

University

of

New

York,

which

will

be

published

by

The

Free

Press

in

spring

1981.

ABSTRACT:

The

Catholic

ethnic

groups

of

European

origins

are

essential

to

any

assessment

of

ethnicity

in

the

United

States.

Their

ethnicity

is

believed

widely

to

remain

vigorous

many

decades

after

their

immigration.

Indeed,

by

the

measure

of

some

important

characteristics,

such

as

rates

of

college

attendance

and

interethnic

marriage,

they

seem

distinct

from

American

core

groups,

specifically

Protestants

of

British

ancestry.

However,

the

trends

of

these

characteristics

among

the

Catholic

groups,

indicated

by

differences

between

birth

cohorts,

reveal

their

growing

similarity

to

the

American

core.

The

Catholic

groups

appear

to

be

assimilating

rapidly,

and

it

is

argued

that

their

ethnicity

is

entering

a

twilight

stage.

The

author

is

grateful

for

the

comments

of

Herbert

Gans,

Milton

Gordon,

and

Robin

Williams

on

a

preceding

draft

of

this

article.