Demographic change and assimilation in the early 21st-century United States

Richard Alba and Christopher Maggio
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Richard Alba: a Department of Sociology, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY 10016;
Christopher Maggio: b Department of Social Policy, The London School of Economics and Political Science, London WC2A 2AE, United Kingdom

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2022, vol. 119, issue 13, e2118678119

Abstract: The contemporary intellectual landscape, dominated by theories about race and racism, has engendered the majority–minority conception of the American future, in which White people are outnumbered by Americans of color by midcentury. But assimilation, as a set of processes with societal ramifications, is still potent, driven by demographic dynamics that generate opportunities for minority mobility, and is linked to increasing family mixing between White and non-White people. The children of these families offer the best window into ongoing assimilation. The binary vision of the majority–minority society needs major modification because of the emergence and growing size of this bridging group. In addition, racism-focused theories need to be complemented by assimilation ideas to grasp the implications of demographic change.

Keywords: assimilation; social mobility; ethnicity and race; intermarriage; mixed backgrounds (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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