Migrations And Cultures: A World View [Hardcover]

Thomas Sowell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 21, 1996

Most commentators look at the issue of immigration from the viewpoint of immediate politics. In doing so, they focus on only a piece of the issue and lose touch with the larger picture. Now Thomas Sowell offers a sweeping historical and global look at a large number of migrations over a long period of time.Migrations and Cultures: shows the persistence of cultural traits, in particular racial and ethnic groups, and the role these groups’ relocations play in redistributing skills, knowledge, and other forms of “human capital.” answers the question: What are the effects of disseminating the patterns of the particular set of skills, attitudes, and lifestyles each ethnic group has carried forth—both for the immigrants and for the host countries, in social as well as economic terms?

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

To future generations, the late 20th century may come to be known as the time of the DPs: Displaced Persons. Migration and refugeeism are raising inflammatory issues from unified Germany to the Tex-Mex border. Into this whirlpool of half-truths, sermons, prejudices, and fears dives Hoover Institution economist and syndicated columnist Thomas Sowell. It is not necessary to agree with all of Sowell's views to admire his imposing attempt to arrive at a theory of migration and culture. Or to succumb to his fascinating tales of how immigrants from Germany, Japan, China, and other countries have coped--and excelled--on strange new shores.

From Publishers Weekly

Sowell (Race and Culture), senior fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution, takes a sweeping look at major world migrations, his aim being to "provide revealing glimpses of the enormous role of cultural heritages and their far-reaching implications." Focusing on the Germans, Japanese, Italians, Chinese, Jews and Indians (why not the Irish, too?), he traces the migratory pattern of each group and examines how it has affected the countries where its members settled, as well as the effects of migration on the immigrants themselves over time. Interesting insights abound in this study. For instance, the xenophobia of Westerners toward Chinese is equally as strong among China's Asian neighbors; northern Italians in their new homelands asked to be counted separately from their southern compatriots; German Jews in America, while extending charity to their less fortunate Eastern European brethren, kept a social distance from them. Sowell's treatment is so comprehensive and detailed, with a plethora of footnotes on almost every page, that his book will be of particular interest to specialists.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 528 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; First edition. edition (March 21, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 046504588X
• ISBN-13: 978-0465045884
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.5 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #174,466 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Thomas Sowell has taught economics at Cornell, UCLA, Amherst and other academic institutions, and his Basic Economics has been translated into six languages. He is currently a scholar in residence at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He has published in both academic journals in such popular media as the Wall Street Journal, Forbes magazine and Fortune, and writes a syndicated column that appears in newspapers across the country.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More ammunition for the culture wars..., April 20, 2001

By 

"michaeleve" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Migrations And Cultures: A World View (Paperback)

...and usable by both sides. Nevermind that the subtitle of MIGRATIONS AND CULTURES says that the perspective taken by this book is A World View - thus the US is not the specific subject - there is enough here of relevance to our current debates on multiculturalism and immigration that both the fuzzy-visioned left and the myopic, patriotic, right will have field days.

Substantively, MIGRATIONS AND CULTURES looks at six cultures (Chinese, Germans, Indians, Italians, Japanese and Jews) and their experiences as migrants in new countries. A summary of some of his main findings is as follows:

1. A fairly common experience is arriving destitute, applying oneself with reliance on family, endeavor, and thrift; emphasizing education for the native-born 2nd generation, and contributing to increasing wealth of their new country. Concommitant with migrant success there is usually envy and/or prejudice from some native populations.

2. A clear distinction can be made between culture and race. The experiences of Chinese migrants in many countries is a frequent example used by Mr Sowell. As an illustration of the reality that cultural similarities can transcend race we are referred to the fully assimilated Chinese of the West Indies.

3. Cultural capital, which he defines as the habits and beliefs that migrants bring to a new country - is much more important in determining the migrants fate, than is the new homeland's economy, culture, or political system.

It is this last point that both sides will debate. It immediately sours the palate of the far right who offer the idea that the goodness of the US as the ultimate land of opportunity, is there to be tasted, if only the migrants would jump into the melting pot. At the same time Mr Sowell scrambles the eggs of the academic left by saying not all cultures are equal. He says plainly that variations in cultural capital account for differences in economic and social outcomes.

This is a well reasoned book, satisfyingly light on the polemics. For those who don't like statistics it's a bit heavy with the numbers. He's an economist so maybe you'll understand and forgive this emphasis. Anyhow, you should definitely read him.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Readable, thorough, and candid, April 6, 2003

By 

David Graham (Shell, Ecuador) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Migrations And Cultures: A World View (Paperback)

How does moving from one country to another, or from one continent to another, affect people? How does it affect the lifestyle of those who move? Conversely, how does this change the culture of the recipient country? In his book MIGRATIONS AND CULTURES, Thomas Sowell explores the various answers to these questions by examining the historical changes wrought by migrations amongst six different groups of people: Germans, Japanese, Italians, Chinese, Jews, and Indians (from India, not North America).

By looking at the histories of Germans who migrated to various places in Russia - Baltic, Volga, Black Sea - as well as the differing histories of Germans who migrated to various places in the United States, Brazil, Paraguay, and Australia, he avoids drawing false conclusions that are often made when only one or two particular cases of migration are studied. Sowell applies this broader historical frame of reference to each of these six groups to better understand cultural phenomena. For example, Orlando Patterson at Harvard once wrote that the Chinese were prominent in Jamaica for reasons peculiar to Jamaican history. But by looking at the Chinese in other cultures, one sees they are dominant "middleman minority" in other places as well, ranging from Thailand or the Philippines to Panama City or Lima, Peru. So that one is forced to conclude that it wasn't something unique to Jamaican history that made Chinese prominent as middlemen, but rather due to something in the culture the people brought with them to China, whether in the form of particular skills or work habits or inclinations and attitudes to life.

After years of exhaustive research, consultation with other scholars, and wide-ranging travels in preparing his trilogy (RACE AND CULTURE, MIGRATIONS AND CULTURES, CONQUESTS AND CULTURES), Sowell concluded, "If there is one pattern that emerges from all these histories it is that each group has its own cultural pattern - and that these patterns do not disappear upon crossing a border or an ocean." Some things, such as external cultural manifestations of language or dress, may change far more readily than internal cultural values such as social mores, marital choice, religious practice, propensity to sacrifice and to save earnings, or attitudes towards work, all things which go into that little phrase, "cultural capital".

Sowell's book is exhaustively researched but not pedantic. His numerous specific examples for the general statements he puts forth not only make his work readable but reliable as well: in making a point, he backs it up with specific historical examples. His book is not "light reading" in the way a intriguing novel might be, but it is "sound" reading, enlightening and trustworthy. I didn't get the feeling Sowell tried to pull the wool over his readers' eyes: he instead attempted to lay out the facts in a coherent, honest fashion. His conclusions are insightful (and sometimes controversial). Provided one keeps a pen or pencil in hand to stay attentive to this text, I believe most will find this an enjoyable reading experience.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Timeless Classic, August 21, 2000

By 

Mike Renzulli (Phoenix, Arizona) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Migrations And Cultures: A World View (Paperback)

This is the first book of Dr Sowell's that I have read and I am glad I chose this to be the first. Dr Sowell does a marvelous job of documenting the accomplishments of 6 ethnic groups, the Germans, the Italians, the Jews, the Japanese, the Chinese and the Indians. One cannot help but come away from this book with an even greater appreciation for the wealth created by the human capital of immigrants. I know I certainly did, especially for the Italians since I am of Italian descent. While this book does get caught up in the statistics at times (which is the reason for the 4 stars), it is still a great read. If you like this book, check out "The Other Americans" by Joel Millman. Good job Dr Sowell!