How minority status affects fertility : Asian groups in Canada /

Sociologist-demographer Halli (University of Manitoba) examines fertility differentials between Chinese, Japanese, and East Indians, using special unpublished cross-tabulations from the 1971 Canada census as well as analyses of individual records from the 1/100 PUS sample file. Halli begins with an overview of the perspective of minority group status as it applies to the fertility of Asian ethnics. Chapters 2 and 3 review historical trends in Asian immigration, and document fertility differentials among Asian ethnic groups. Halli makes use of selected period measures of fertility and controls for various social and economic characteristics. In Chapter 4, he systematically reevaluates the logical and empirical strengths of the social characteristics/assimilationist perspective as opposed to minority group status hypothesis, and offers a reconceptualization of the latter. Halli then tests the reconceptualized version, using the fertility experiences of the Chinese and Japanese. The value of the study is in its theoretical analysis and its competent use of various demographic indexes. Well written; good bibliography. A must for students of ethnicity and race, and population studies. College and university libraries.-D.W. Hastings, University of Tennessee at Knoxville