ASSIMILATION AND NEED ASSESSMENT AMONG MEXICAN, CUBAN, AND MIDDLE EASTERN IMMIGRANTS: A MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS (LISREL)
Author: NAMAZI, KEVAN H.
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Abstract: The intent of this study was to investigate whether or not the assimilation of new immigrants was contingent upon their "needs" in the new social setting. Maslow's need hierarchy paradigm serves as the theoretical groundwork for this study. It is hypothesized that assimilation of newly arrived immigrants in American society is primarily determined by fulfillment of their basic needs. The needs for each specific group of immigrants are measured by seven variables relevant to dimensions of their goals. It is also suggested that Mexicans' needs were for economic subsistence, Cubans' are for safety and security, and Middle Easterners' are of esteem.
The data on Mexican and Cuban refugees were gathered in 1978 as part of the project "Latin American Immigrant Minority in the United States." The Middle Eastern immigrants' data were collected through snowball sampling by the author from 1981 to 1983 across the United States.
The frequency distribution revealed that the majority of immigrants scored satisfactorily on assimilation scales. Cubans were assimilated more fully than the Mexicans, while Middle Easterners surpassed both groups by a small margin. The LISREL analysis showed that four of the nine hypotheses were not supported by the data. All models for Middle Eastern immigrants and two for Mexican immigrants provided significant explanation for needs and their effect on assimilation. Mexican assimilation is influenced not only by their basic economic needs but also by their esteem needs as well. The Middle Easterners' assimilation was the by-product of their safety and security plus their esteem needs. The Cubans' models indicated that safety and security needs, as was proposed, were not primarily the determining factors in their assimilation. However, further analysis of data showed that Cubans' assimilation was motivated by their basic economic and esteem needs.
The results indicated that there is a similar process of assimilation for all types of immigrants. Although economic subsistence and safety needs contributed immensely to the outcome of assimilation, we can conclude that the process of assimilation in this inquiry was greatly determined by the need for greater economic attainment among all groups which is consistent with American ideology.