European Immigration and Patterns of Intra- and Inter-Racial Mortality Inequality in the United States, 1900-1960

European immigrants to the United States in the early twentieth century occupied a “middle tier” in the ethnoracial hierarchy. The author uses mortality data disaggregated by nativity (1900–1960) and parental nativity (1900–1920) to examine intraracial and interracial mortality inequalities during this period. The findings suggest that variation within the white population mirrored the ethnoracial hierarchy: the U.S.-born white population with U.S.-born parents had the lowest rates of mortality from 1900 to 1920, and the foreign-born white population had higher rates than their U.S.-born counterparts. Given this heterogeneity, interracial inequality is higher when various U.S.-born white populations are the reference. Disaggregation also reveals divergent trends, such as the exceptionally high foreign-born mortality rates during the 1918 influenza pandemic. The findings suggest that analyses of mortality inequalities that rely on white population averages may understate intra- and interracial inequalities in relation to the ethnoracial hierarchy of the era.

二十世纪初，欧洲移民在美国的社会民族等级中占据了“中层”位置。作者运用1900年至1960年按出生地（原籍地）和1900年至1920年按父母出生地（原籍地）细分的死亡率数据，考察了这一时期内的种族内和种族间的死亡率不平等。研究发现，白人人口内部的差异与民族种族等级结构相呼应：1900年至1920年间，出生在美国且父母均为美国出生的白人人口死亡率最低，而出生在国外的白人人口死亡率高于其在美国出生的同族。鉴于这种异质性，当以各种出生在美国的白人人口为参照时，种族间不平等更为显著。细分的分析还揭示了不同的趋势，如1918年流感大流行期间外国出生人口的死亡率异常高。研究结果表明，依赖白人人口平均死亡率的死亡率不平等分析可能会低估与当时民族种族等级结构相关的种族内和种族间的死亡率不平等。