Abstract
A key phenomenon to gauge the degree of ethnoracial integration is the pattern of assortative mating based on ethnoracial characteristics. However, possibly because of the assumption that class and not race is the relevant factor in the Mexican stratification regime, assortative mating based on ethnoracial characteristics has been an understudied phenomenon in the country. Based on a multidimensional perspective and using a novel national representative survey, we analyze ethnoracial homogamy patterns in Mexico using four dimensions: skin tone, ethnoracial identification, indigenous language, and Mayan surname. For comparative purposes, we also calculate and control for educational homogamy in our analysis. Results indicate that ethnoracial homogamy is significantly different to educational homogamy and that it differs among dimensions: the highest likelihood of ethnoracial homogamy is found in the linguistic dimension and the lowest in the skin tone dimension. Comparatively, ethnoracial identification and Mayan surname have intermediate levels of homogamy.
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Notes
A recent study in the US which used longitudinal data (Saperstein & Penner, 2012) shows evidence of individual changes in race (both self-declared and identified by others) which are related to upward changes in social position.
More information about the Survey in English can be consulted here: https://discriminacion.colmex.mx/?page_id=4431.
The chance of a language barrier in the interviews with indigenous language speakers was small. Not only a very small fraction of indigenous language speakers is monolingual (see footnote 4), but also, according to the last Census, most of them (98%) reside with at least one Spanish-speaker member in his/her household. In addition, during the fieldwork we did not receive any reports from the interviewers of this being a systematic issue that impeded data collection.
We did not include an item about Spanish proficiency because, according to the last 2020 Census, only a small fraction (8%) of 25–64-year-old indigenous-language speakers in Mexico are monolinguals, which represents less than 1% of the total population in that age range (own estimates).
The item in the questionnaire was phrased What do you consider to be your current (last) partner’s skin tone?
Complete comparability was, of course, not possible, not only because questions were slightly different in the questionnaire (one placing emphasis on physical appearance and the other one not) but also because the appraisal obtained by the interviewer and the one from a partner are substantially different because the latter may consider other non-physical traits such as family background or cultural traditions.
We used a pocket-size digital color scanner that uses its own sources of light to measure color with high accuracy. This device yields a skin color measure in the CIELAB color space, which expresses color as a function of three values L (Luminosity from black to white), a (variations in color from green to red), and b (variations in color from blue to yellow). Because skin tone is our variable of interest, we focus on the L values. This optical device was applied in the respondent’s back of the hand.
The question prompted to the interviewer was: Based on the physical appearance of the respondent, you consider that he/she is a(n) (“Indigenous,” “Black,” “White,” “Mestiza,” “Other”) person.
The question prompted to the respondent was: From the groups on the following list, to what group does your (last) partner belongs(belonged) to? (“Indigenous,” “Black,” “White,” “Mestiza,” “Other,” “Refuses to answer,” “Don’t know”).
See Chapter IV “Of Marriage Certificates” (“De las Actas de Matrimonio” in Spanish) http://consejeria.yucatan.gob.mx/documentos/5._Ley_del_Registro_Civil.pdf.
All tables used for the models are included in the Appendix.
To achieve this, we divided each observation’s assigned weight by the mean of the weight variable.
These differences might be attributed to two factors. The first is that men occupations, and more specifically those in the lowest part of the economic distribution, are more exposed to sunlight, which might influence their skin tone in a more significant way than women occupation in the same social class. The second is that esthetic conceptions of beauty which mostly affect women could lead to a whitening effect (Dixon & Telles, 2017).
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This study was supported by W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
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Güémez, B., Solís, P. Ethnoracial and Educational Homogamy in Mexico: A Multidimensional Perspective. Popul Res Policy Rev 41, 2331–2363 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-022-09729-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-022-09729-z