Social Incorporation: Friendship and Marriage

Abstract

Sociologists have generally seen social interaction as one of the key benchmarks of incorporation among the descendants of international migrants. Gordon (1964), as we have seen earlier, saw ‘widespread intermarriage’ as a central element in the process of American assimilation. A prominent theme in Portes and Rumbaut’s (2001) study of the situation of children of international migrants in the United States concerned the use of social networks by different ethnic groups. Portes and Rumbaut argued that social interaction with people outside an individual’s own ethnic group had a substantial influence upon ‘successful’ acculturation and incorporation. More broadly, sociologists have long argued that patterns of social interaction provide powerful insights into the nature of social divisions within contemporary societies.