Cited by 304Racial and Ethnic Identity ResearchMigration, Refugees, and IntegrationUrban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies

The changing racial and ethnic composition of the US population: Emerging American identities

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Perez, Anthony Daniel, Hirschman, Charles·2009·Population and Development Review

Abstract

Images and interpretations of the past, present, and future of the American racial and ethnic landscape are contradictory. Many accounts focus on the increasing diversity that results from immigration and differential natural increase as well as the proliferation of racial and ethnic categories in census data. Less attention has been paid to the formation and erosion of racial and ethnic identities produced by intermarriage and ethnic blending. The framers and custodians of census racial classifications assume a “geographic origins” definition of race and ethnicity, but the de facto measures in censuses and social surveys rely on folk categories that vary over time and are influenced by administrative practices and sociopolitical movements. We illustrate these issues through an in‐depth examination of the racial and ethnic reporting by whites, blacks, Asians, and Hispanics in the 2000 census. The emerging pattern, labeled here as the “Americanization” of racial and ethnic identities, and most evident for whites and blacks, is of simplified racial identities with little acknowledgment of complex ancestries. National origin is the predominant mode of reporting racial and ethnic identities among Asians and Hispanics, especially first‐generation immigrants. The future of racial and ethnic identities is unknowable, but continued high levels of immigration, intermarriage, and social mobility are likely to blur contemporary divisions and boundaries.

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Research works printed but not linked: 11

  1. Alba Richard Ethnic Identity 1990 Yale University Press New Haven
  2. Edmonston Barry Schultze Charles Modernizing the US Census 1995 National Academy Press Washington, DC
  3. Edmonston Barry Goldstein Joshua Lott Juanita Tamayo Spotlight on Heterogeneity: The Federal Standards for Racial and Ethnic Classification 1996 National Academy Press Washington, DC
  4. Harris David The 1990 Census count of American Indians: What do the numbers really mean? Social Science Quarterly 1994 75 580 593
  5. Hoerder Dirk Cultures and Contact: World Migrations in the Second Millennium 2002 Duke University Press Durham
  6. Klinker Philip A. Smith Rogers M. The Unsteady March: The Rise and Decline of Racial Inequality in America 1999 University of Chicago Press Chicago
  7. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Recommendations from the Interagency Committee for the Review of the Race and ethnic Standards to the Office of Management and Budget Concerning Changes to the Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and ethnicity Federal Register 1997a 62 131 36874 36946 Wednesday, July 9, 1997/Notices
  8. Price Charles Thernstrom Stephan Methods of estimating the size of groups The Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups 1980 1033 1044 Harvard University Press Cambridge, MA
  9. Rhode Douglas L. T. Olson Steve Chang Joseph T. Modeling the recent common ancestor of all living humans Nature 2004 431 7008 562 566 15457259
  10. Smith James P. Edmonston Barry The New Americans: Economic, Demographic, and Fiscal Impacts of Immigration 1997 National Academy Press Washington, DC
  11. Yinger J. Milton Ethnicity Annual Review of Sociology 1985 11 151 180

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Authors
Perez, A. D., & Hirschman, C.
Affiliations
University of Washington (US)
Venue
Population and Development Review
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2009-03
Volume
35
Issue
1
Pages
1-51
ISSN
  • 0098-7921 (ISSN-L)
  • 1728-4457
OpenAlex
W1964179061
Cited by
302
References
188
Citations by year
2026: 9 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 36 · 2021: 28 · 2020: 32 · 2019: 26 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 22 · 2016: 23 · 2015: 15 · 2014: 19 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 6
FWCI
28.14
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Population and Development Review (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD047289, R24HD042828, R24HD041028)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Racial and Ethnic Identity Research
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Migration, Refugees, and Integration
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies
Keywords
racial and ethnic composition, racial identity, ethnic identity, intermarriage, 2000 census, Americanization, national origin, immigration, natural increase, census categories, social mobility, Hispanic Americans, Asians, white, black

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