Predicting Segmented Outcomes:Young Adult Assimilation in the United States.

Segmented assimilation theory argues that immigrants follow different paths of assimilation into different segments of American society. Portes and Zhou identify three pre-existing segments into which immigrants assimilate: the middle class, the underclass, and a pseudo-segment identified by economic advancement and immigrant solidarity. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we attempt to identify these and other possible segments as well as factors such as immigrant generation, race, ethnicity, that are associated with these segments. Cluster analysis of the young adult men and women of Add Health do not yield segments consistent with segmented assimilation theory, nor are the resulting segments satisfactorily robust. We then turn to a reexamination of the theory with the hope that the inclusion of concepts from class analytic and status attainment literatures can inform and enrich segmented assimilation theory. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]