The Relation Between Position and Status in the Assimilation of Chinese in Hawaii

The functional correspondence between position in the ecological order and status in the social order is disrupted by migration. The sequence of changes in the relationship between the position and status of migrants may be viewed as phases of the assimilative process. Among Chinese in Hawaii the main stages in this sequence have been: a plantation period, with social isolation and residential and occupational segregation; a period of urbanization, with residential segregation but expanding occupational distribution; a third period,still in process, with residential dispersion within the city, continued infiltration into all parts of the occupational structure, and increased social contacts with other groups in the interracial society. In the latest phase of the process status of the person again tends to coincide with position but in a larger, more impersonal society.