Abstract
The influx of immigrants has increased diversity among ethnic minorities and indicates that they may take multiple integration paths in American society. Previous research on ethnic integration has often focused on panethnic differences, and few have explored ethnic diversity within a racial or panethnic context. Using 2000 U.S. census data for Puerto Rican–, Mexican-, Chinese-, and Filipino-origin individuals, we examine differences in marriage and cohabitation with whites, with other minorities, within a panethnic group, and within an ethnic group by nativity status. Ethnic endogamy is strong and, to a lesser extent, so is panethnic endogamy. Yet, marital or cohabiting unions with whites remain an important path of integration but differ significantly by ethnicity, nativity, age at arrival, and educational attainment. Meanwhile, ethnic differences in marriage and cohabitation with other racial or ethnic minorities are strong. Our analysis supports that unions with whites remain a major path of integration, but other paths of integration also become viable options for all ethnic groups.
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Notes
Puerto Ricans, nonetheless, face similar conditions confronting immigrants. For example, Puerto Ricans speak Spanish in Puerto Rico and typically remain a distinct group on the mainland.
The smaller the L2 and BIC, the better the model fit. The BIC statistic adjusts the L2 for sample size. BIC = L2 – (df) log(N).
As shown in Table 2, gender differences are evident for Chinese and Filipinos but are beyond the scope of this article.
BC in the denominator of Eq. (4) is constrained to be exp(λ21) in quasi-symmetry models.
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported by a grant (1 R01 HD43035-01) from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. We thank Dan Lichter, Grace Kao, and several anonymous reviewers for helpful comments.
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Qian, Z., Glick, J.E. & Batson, C.D. Crossing Boundaries: Nativity, Ethnicity, and Mate Selection. Demography 49, 651–675 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-012-0090-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-012-0090-3