Assimilated or The Boundary of Whiteness Expanded? A Boundary Model of Group Belonging
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In 19th century U.S., European ethnics were considered dark-skinned and working-class. By the 1950s, they were re-categorized as White Americans. Assimilation theory suggests that Europeans' intergroup interactions such as socioeconomic attainments and intermarriage with Anglo-Saxon Whites led to their assimilation and racial re-categorization. The theory anticipates that class mobility translates into re-categorization into Whiteness such that non-Europeans' upward mobility will also propel them into Whiteness. Despite non-Europeans' successful intergroup interactions, their assimilation and belonging is still up for debate. If both Europeans and non-Europeans have participated in similar rates of intergroup interactions, which other factor has determined their differential assimilation outcomes? In response, we conceptualize a boundary model for understanding group belonging. To do so, we distinguish between symbolic and phenotype or somatic race. The former provides and attaches meanings to soma. This boundary model comprises the combined effects of individuals' intergroup interactions and majority groups' symbolic racial boundary expansion-contraction. Assimilation outcome occurs only when majority groups' boundary expands to recognize intergroup interactions as meaningful and to include newcomers as racial group insiders. We revisit the case of European ethnics to show that the symbolic boundary of Whiteness expanded to re-categorize them as assimilated Whites. Accordingly, we formulate four hypotheses about the possibilities of re-categorizing groups in and out of a master category such as Whiteness.
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Anglo-Saxon and European immigrant communities upheld the colour line through the moral-geographical triple conflation of White = Europe = Christian.
“Across generations, Anglo-Saxon and European immigrant communities alike upheld the colour line through the moral-geographical 'triple conflation of White = Europe = Christian' (Bonnett 1998(Bonnett , 1038;;Guglielmo 2003;Karimi and Wilkes 2023).”
From Wages of whiteness contra refugee in the twenty-first century: Afghan and Ukrainian women’s self-identification as (non)refugees in Canada (2026) · cites this paper as Karimi and Wilkes 2023
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Karimi, A., & Wilkes, R.
- Affiliations
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Karimi, Aryan
- Venue
- The British Journal of Sociology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2023-01-13
- Volume
- 74
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 189-204
- ISSN
- 0007-1315 (ISSN-L)
- 1468-4446
- OpenAlex
- W4316041926
- Cited by
- 12
- References
- 104
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 2
- FWCI
- 5.16
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- British Journal of Sociology (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Migration, Refugees, and Integration
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Racial and Ethnic Identity Research
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Race, History, and American Society
- Keywords
- whiteness, assimilation theory, boundary model, group belonging, intergroup interaction, social mobility, intermarriage, majority groups
- MeSH terms
- White, Humans, Racial Groups
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