The central claim of the present study is that under conditions of persistent ethnic inequality accompanied by widespread acculturation, ethnic convergence processes may proceed in various directions among different subsections of the same group. Expectations based on three theoretical approaches that assume different directions of ethnic convergence are tested on data of friendship patterns among two generations of Iraqi Jews in Israel, using logistic regression procedures for polytomous dependent variables. The findings substantiate the central claim and lend general support to the triple melting pot diesis. An explanatory framework that could prove to be a fruitful direction for future research is suggested.
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