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  • 2021
  • Working Paper

Faith and Assimilation: Italian Immigrants in the U.S.

By: Stefano Gagliarducci and Marco Tabellini
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:78
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Abstract

We study the effects of religious organizations on immigrants' assimilation. We focus on the arrival of Italian Catholic churches in the US between 1900 and 1920, when four million Italians had moved to America, and anti-Catholic sentiments were widespread. We combine newly collected Catholic directories on the presence of Italian churches across years and counties with the full count U.S. Census of Population. We find that Italian churches reduced the social assimilation of Italian immigrants, lowering intermarriage rates and increasing ethnic residential segregation. We find no evidence that this was the result of either lower effort exerted by immigrants to "fit in'' the American society or increased desire to vertically transmit national culture. Instead, we provide evidence for two other non-mutually exclusive mechanisms. First, Italian churches raised the frequency of interactions among fellow Italians, likely generating peer effects and reducing contact with other groups. Second, they increased the salience of the immigrant community among natives, thereby triggering backlash and discrimination.

Keywords

Assimilation; Religious Organizations; Immigration; Religion; History; United States

Citation

Gagliarducci, Stefano, and Marco Tabellini. "Faith and Assimilation: Italian Immigrants in the U.S." Working Paper, February 2021.
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About The Author

Marco E. Tabellini

Business, Government and the International Economy
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  • Reforming the U.S. Immigration Regime: A Polarizing Issue in a Polarized Era By: Marco Tabellini
  • Hate Crime Increases with Minoritized Group Rank By: Mina Cikara, Vasiliki Fouka and Marco Tabellini
  • The Design of Disease Maps Shapes Perceptions of Threat and Public Policy Preferences By: Marco Tabellini, Claudia Engel and Jonathan Rodden
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