Models of Assimilation Among Albanian Americans of St. George Cathedral in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
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Providence College DigitalCommons@Providence History & Classics Dissertations and Masters Theses History & Classics 5-15-2015 Do Traditional Models of Assimilation Still Apply?: Models of Assimilation Among Albanian Americans of St. George Cathedral in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries Stephanie A. Callahan Providence College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.providence.edu/history_dissertations_theses Part of the United States History Commons Callahan, Stephanie A., "Do Traditional Models of Assimilation Still Apply?: Models of Assimilation Among Albanian Americans of St. George Cathedral in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries" (2015). History & Classics Dissertations and Masters Theses. 3. https://digitalcommons.providence.edu/history_dissertations_theses/3 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the History & Classics at DigitalCommons@Providence. It has been accepted for inclusion in History & Classics Dissertations and Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Providence. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Do Traditional Models of Assimilation Still Apply?: Models of Assimilation Among Albanian Americans of St. George Cathedral in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries by Stephanie A. Callahan Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in History at Providence College 2015 To the “Albanian side” of the family, Yaya, Nana, Papa, and Mom, for instilling within me a deep appreciation for our Albanian traditions, family history, strong coffee, and baklava. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................... 1 Post-1900 Albanian Immigration To The United States ................................................... 10 CHAPTER 1. RESEARCH DESIGN, IMPLEMENTATION, AND ANALYTICAL METHODS ........................................................................................................................ 22 CHAPTER 2. A HISTORY OF ALBANIAN AMERICANS ...................................................... 35 CHAPTER 3. PRESENTATION OF THE DATA ON CONTEMPORARY ALBANIAN AMERICANS OF GREATER BOSTON: FIRST GENERATION ................................. 56 The First Generation .......................................................................................................... 58 CHAPTER 4. PRESENTATION OF THE DATA ON CONTEMPORARY ALBANIAN AMERICANS OF GREATER BOSTON: SECOND GENERATION ............................ 77 The Second Generation ..................................................................................................... 78 CHAPTER 5. PRESENTATION OF THE DATA ON CONTEMPORARY ALBANIAN AMERICANS OF GREATER BOSTON: THIRD AND FOURTH GENERATION ................................................................................................................. 99 The Third Generation ...................................................................................................... 100 The Fourth Generation .................................................................................................... 115 CHAPTER 6. CONCLUSIONS ON THE HOLDING POWER OF ETHNICITY .................... 122 The Holding Power Of Ethnicity: Analysis Of The Community By Generation ............ 124 The Holding Power Of Ethnicity: Analysis Of The Community At Large ..................... 137 Questions Raised And Call For Future Research ............................................................ 141 APPENDICES ............................................................................................................................. 143 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................... 208 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project would have been impossible without both the survey and interview participants who gave their time to and shared their stories with me. It is also due to the guidance and support of Fr. Arthur Liolin and the entire community of St. George Cathedral in South Boston, Massachusetts. Special recognition is also due to the History Department of Providence College, particularly Dr. Darra Mulderry for her direction, erudition, and encouragement, and Dr. Despina Prassas of the Theology Department for her support and precision. INTRODUCTION Since more than a century ago sociologists have taken a keen interest in the degree to which—and how—the variety of immigrant groups in America have “assimilated” to the dominant culture. By the mid-twentieth century the earliest theorists in the field had developed what we now view as the traditional theories or models of assimilation. These so-called traditional theories were based on the study of European immigrants who came to America between 1820-1920 and identified a variety of models of assimilation, according to degree of assimilation. The traditional models also describe the degree of pluralism, or the degree to which—and how—ethnic groups maintain their individual identities within the larger society. More recently, sociologist Joseph Healey has made the distinction that assimilation and pluralism are not mutually exclusive; while many traditional theories focus more on the process of assimilation, some theories feature characteristics of pluralism.1 Early sociologists Robert Park and Ernest Burgess began the discussion on theories of assimilation in 1924. According to their theory of Americanization (referred to by Stewart G. Cole, Mildred Wise Cole, Michael Gordon, and other sociologists as 1 Joseph Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class: The Sociology of Group Conflict and Change, 6th ed. (Sage Publications, Inc., 2014), 43. 1 Anglo-Conformity2), new immigrant groups are coerced by the larger society into adopting pre-existing language and customs in order to access wealth, education, and skilled employment. Under this model, the ethnic group does not maintain its ethnic identity past the third generation, nor does it influence or alter the host culture.3 Other models of assimilation allow for the immigrant group to maintain some semblance of their original culture, be it language, food, religion, or other customs. In Horace Kallen’s model of Cultural Pluralism, for example, the immigrant group is influenced by the larger society, but still allowed “the right to be different.”4 A similar theory is Milton Gordon’s Acculturation but not Assimilation model, in which immigrant groups are both influenced by and influencing the majority culture. Gordon found it is a group’s structural pluralism (its independent religious, educational, and bureaucratic structures) that permits degrees of separation from the larger society.5 Alternatively, some models of assimilation allow for a pluralistic approach to culture, as opposed to assimilation. An almost wholly pluralistic model, the Melting Pot, was popularized by Israel Zangwill’s 1908 play The Melting-Pot and legitimized by sociologist Oscar Handlin. In this model the larger society absorbs aspects of multiple cultures; all groups contribute somewhat equally “to an emerging national character.”6 2 Stewart G. Cole and Mildred Wiese Cole, Minorities and the American Promise, Ch. 6 (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1954); Michael Gordon, Human Nature, Class and Ethnicity (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978), 184. 3 Robert E. Park and Ernest W. Burgess, Introduction to the Science of Sociology (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1924), 773. 4 Horace Kallen, Culture and Democracy in the United States (New York: Boni and Liveright, 1924), 122-124; and Greeley, 305-306. 5 Milton Gordon, Assimilation in American Life: The Role of Race, Religion, and National Origins (New York: Oxford University Press, 1964), 114. 2 The later Triple Melting Pot model emerged after Ruby Jo Kennedy’s study of intermarriage in New Haven, Connecticut in the 1940s found that increasing intermarriage is not “general and indiscriminate” but “channeled by religious barriers.”7 Will Herberg expanded on the Triple Melting Pot theory in the 1950s, arguing that religion was replacing ethnicity as the primary means of self-identification among many Third Generation Americans, and that American white ethnics in the postwar world were best organized into three “melting pots”: Catholicism, Protestantism, and Judaism.8 Recent research suggests that theories that applied to European immigrant groups of 1820-1920 may apply to neither their descendants, deemed “white ethnics,” nor the United States’ newest immigrant groups. With the ethnic revival of the 1960s and an influx of new immigrants, sociologists have revised and added to the traditional theories of assimilation. By the 1970s William Newman argued that pluralism and assimilation remain useful concepts only if we remember “that not all groups become ‘American’ in the same way.”9 Herbert Gans’ theory of Symbolic Ethnicity describes descendants who express their ethnic identity through “a nostalgic allegiance to the culture of the immigrant generation, or that of the old country; a love for and a pride in a tradition that can be felt without having to be incorporated in everyday behavior.”10 Yet another 6 Oscar Handlin, Immigration as a Factor in American History (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1959), 146; and Israel Zangwill, The Melting-Pot: Drama in Four Acts (New York: Macmillan, 1932). 7 Ruby Jo Reeves Kennedy, “Single or Triple Melting Pot? Intermarriage Trends in New Haven, 1870-1940,”