From Draft NOtices, July-September 2020
Who Joins the Military and Why: An Initial Reconnaissance
Research with potential implications for counter-recruitment work
— Isidro D. Ortiz, Ph.D.
Change: gentrification
The demographic composition of the American military has been a subject of interest to scholars, journalists and counter-recruitment activists. Some of the last have contended that the composition reflects a “poverty draft.” A recent study provides insight into the issue. “A Mercenary Army of the poor? Technological Change and the Demographic Composition of post-9/11 U.S. Military” by Andrea Asoni et. al, sheds new light on the controversial notion that the “the American military is a mercenary army of the poor.” The investigators break methodological ground by analyzing individual-level data on two national samples covering the period 1979-2005. Their analyses of the data reveal, they claim, that “contrary to accepted wisdom, the U.S. military no longer primarily recruits individuals from the most disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds.” They also found that, in contrast to the past, those who join the American armed forces are at or above the median with respect to socio-economic indicators such as parental income, parental wealth and cognitive abilities — exactly the opposite of what other studies maintain. In other words, the armed forces recruited primarily from the middle-class sector of society. According to the investigators, at the roots of the change — which some have described as the “gentrification” of the military — are increases in the requirements of the “modern capital-intensive, information dominant, expeditionary American military.” According to the researchers, “the less affluent are less likely to meet such requirements.”
To youth who may be socially and economically marginalized, the claim that the military provides opportunities for growth, success and belonging may be seductive. The accomplishments of Gilberto Robledo -- educator, military veteran and peace activist — show how someone can attain those things without making a career out of the military.
