THE EDUCATION OF PORTUGUESE AMERICANS: A STATISTICAL PORTRAIT - Dulce Maria Scott

THE EDUCATION OF PORTUGUESE AMERICANS: A STATISTICAL PORTRAIT

Dulce Maria Scott, Ph.D.
Anderson University

American Community Survey cross-sectional data as well as an online survey conducted in 2010-2011 allow us a glimpse into the educational attainment of the population of Portuguese ancestry in the United States. Education has long held a special place in the American imagination as the quintessential path toward socioeconomic upward mobility and the realization of the American dream.

The data presented in the Tables below allow us to
discern a few patterns and trends:

1. the level of education of those born in Portugal is well
below the average high school and college rates for all
Americans;

2. the American-born Portuguese generations have made
progress in relation to their parents’ generation;

3. the level of educational attainment of Portuguese
Americans while lower than that of other, older
European ethnic groups, is considerably higher than
that of minority ethnic groups in America;

4. the levels of Portuguese American educational
achievement are not uniform across the United States.

Portuguese immigrants born in Portugal–who arrived in the United States largely to work in the manual labor segments of the American economy–display educational levels that are well below the average for all Americans (see Table 1). Among Portuguese immigrants, 54.7 percent have attained a high school degree and only 10.8 percent have completed a bachelor’s degree. These rates are considerably lower than the corresponding United States national averages of respectively 86.3 percent and 29.1 percent.

Today, in an age of globalization and cosmopolitanism, the American economy no longer provides stable industrial employment for manual labor immigrants and their children. Employment in the stable and high paying primary sector of the economy-composed of large scale firms, research institutions, hospitals, public and private universities, and so on-requires the attainment of high levels of education. As such, it is important that Portuguese Americans continue to make progress educationally.

The Census Bureau does not provide separate data for the immigrant and American-born generations, and, thus, all Portuguese Americans–born in the United States, born in Portugal, and born outside of both Portugal and the United States–are included in the ancestry group. The rates for the entire ancestry group–of 84.4 percent for high school and 24.8 percent for college–although still somewhat below the national averages, show that there has been a significant degree of intergenerational educational progress between the immigrant and the American born generations (see Table 1). It is important to note that 21.1 percent of the entire Portuguese ancestral group is immigrant, that is, it is born outside of the United States (see Table 4 below). Given the low rates of education displayed by the born-in-Portugal immigrant group, we may assume that their inclusion in the entire ancestry group depresses the rates of educational attainment shown for all Portuguese Americans.

From a classical assimilation theory perspective, the educational data for the Portuguese would be viewed as an indicator of low levels of integration and assimilation into American society. Yet, such interpretations often fail to take into account that the American born children of Southern and Eastern European immigrants of the turn to the twentieth century made only modest progress educationally, and that it was not until the third- and fourth- generations that education began to make a difference (cf. Gans 1992: 176-177). Indeed, this three- and four-generational pattern of educational progress among Portuguese American respondents was evident in data I collected through an online survey done in 2010 and beginning of 2011 (see Table 2).

The data presented in Table 2 reveal that the high school and university graduation rates are quite high among those who participated in the survey. However, a fact that immediately stands out in the Table is that the respondents’ parents had very low levels of educational attainment.

While the level of education of the parents increased gradually from generation to generation, it is not until the parents of the fourth generation (themselves the third generation) that the parental high school graduation rate for both mothers and fathers and the college graduation rate for fathers reached levels above the national averages for the United States as a whole, a pattern that is congruent with that described by Gans (1992) for the intergenerational progress of early European immigrants.

THE EDUCATION OF PORTUGUESE AMERICANS: A STATISTICAL PORTRAIT - Dulce Maria Scott

An online survey is not based on a probability sample of the entire population, which limits its generalizability, and it is likely to capture population segments with higher levels of education. The results, nevertheless, provide us with insights into the cross-generational educational path taken by the 1531 respondents who took the survey.

III

The American community survey data presented in Table 3 show that the Portuguese ancestral group’s high school and university completion rates are significantly lower than those of other European ancestry groups. They are, however, higher than the rates achieved by minority racial groups, such as Cape Verdean and Mexican Americans.

The rates for Mexican Americans are comparable to those displayed by the Portuguese immigrant generation, and this is not surprising when one takes into consideration that a large portion of the former group’s population is recently immigrated. Brazilian immigrants, although arriving in the United States at a later date than the Portuguese, have high levels of educational attainment. This is perhaps a reflection of bipolar immigration trends, with a high number of educated immigrants arriving from Brazil (cf. Scott 2010).

The level of educational attainment among Luso-Americans is not uniform throughout the United States. It is lower in Hawaii and the old industrial Northeastern states of original settlement: Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Jersey (see Table 4). In California, another state of original Portuguese settlement, the level of educational attainment is slightly higher than in the Northeastern states, but it is still below the national averages for the entire United States population. On the other hand, in most of the states that have been gaining Portuguese American population, particularly New York and Texas, and, to a lesser extent, Washington and Oregon, the level of education of people of Portuguese ancestry is close to or is higher than the averages for the nation. In Texas, it is on par with the national averages for the older European ancestries, such as the Irish and Italians.

A possible explanation for the differential rates among states might be that Luso-descendants, who have completed a university education, are moving away from the economically depressed Northeastern states to Southern and Western states. Census data (cf. Scott 2009) show that most states of traditional settlement (including California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Rhode Island) are losing population of Portuguese descent. It is also possible that in a context of globalization and global migration, new highly educated and skilled immigrants, who are now part of what I call a fourth wave of immigration from Portugal, are moving into non-traditional states of Portuguese settlement, which offer better employment opportunities.

In conclusion, the Portuguese are making progress educationally in the United States. However, particularly in the states of traditional settlement in the Northeast–Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Jersey–individuals and community organizations could engage in a more concerted effort to promote education among Luso-descendants and their families. In a globalized economy, where stable and high paying employment increasingly requires high levels of education, Luso-descendants will benefit from parents who are informed about the educational opportunities available in the United States and a community that mobilizes its resources in support of cultural and educational activities for its children.

Sources:
Gans, Herbert J. 1992. “Second-generation decline:
scenarios for the economic and ethnic futures of
the post-1965 American immigrants.” Ethnic and
Racial Studies 15 (2):173-192.
Scott, Dulce Maria. 2012. “The Education of Luso-
Descendants: Theory, Data, and Recommendations,”
in Human Rights and Quality of In the Portuguese
Speaking Communities in the U.S. and Canada.
Proceedings from an International Symposium,
Cambridge, MA, USA, November 2011, pp. 285-315,
Direção Regional das Comunidades, Government of the
Azores.
Scott, Dulce Maria. 2009. “Portuguese Americans’
Acculturation, Socioeconomic Integration, and
Amalgamation: How far have they advanced?”
Sociologia,Problemas e Práticas, 61:41-64.
U.S. Census Bureau (2011-2013). Selected Population
Tables. American Community Survey 3-Year Estimates.

Dulce Maria Scott holds a PhD in Sociology from Brown University, USA. Dr. Scott s a Full Professor at Anderson University, Indiana, USA.

THE EDUCATION OF PORTUGUESE AMERICANS: A STATISTICAL PORTRAIT – Dulce Maria Scott