Love and Immigration
By Cynthia G. Wagner
Immigration is apparently slowing down the rate of
marriages between individuals of different ethnic and racial groups in
the United States, report researchers at Ohio State University.
"These declines in intermarriages are a significant
departure from past trends," says sociology professor Zhenchao Qian.
Interracial and inter-ethnic marriages began accelerating in the 1970s
and grew throughout the 1980s, but then declined significantly in the
1990s as immigrant populations boomed. "More native-born Asian Americans
and Hispanics are marrying their foreign-born counterparts," he notes.
Cohabitation is likewise on the decline among
interracial couples, the study notes. Education levels seem to be the
key variable, as rates of interracial marriages tend to go up with
increasing levels of education. "The melting pot is clearly bubbling,
but mostly along class lines, with the highly educated most likely to
cross racial and ethnic lines to marry," according to Qian.
Interracial relationships are lowest among African
Americans, who are more likely than Hispanics and Asian Americans to be
segregated by schools and neighborhoods and thus have fewer
opportunities to mix with members of other races. "Interracial marriages
between African Americans and whites will continue to increase, but it
will take a lot for blacks to get near the levels of intermarriages seen
by other minority groups," Qian believes.
Settling in America: Welcome vs. Welfare
One possible factor in immigration's braking effect on interracial
and interethnic marriages is that legal immigrants to the United States
are congregating in more immigrant-friendly communities.
According to an unrelated study at the University
of California at Irvine, a welcoming community is more important than
greater welfare benefits in encouraging legal immigrants to become
naturalized U.S. citizens. Places where the locals consider immigrants
"hardworking and beneficial" and where English-only policies are opposed
are more likely to see legal immigrants undergo the naturalization
process.
Among the most immigrant-friendly places are
Arizona, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan,
New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington,
according to the study led by demographers Susan K. Brown and Frank D.
Bean. The availability of more welfare benefits in a particular state
does not significantly influence immigrants to naturalize there, says
Bean.
Sources: Ohio State University, Research
Communications, 1125 Kinnear Road, Columbus, Ohio 43212. Web site
http://researchnews.osu.edu.
University of California, Irvine, News Service,
Irvine, California 92697. Web site
http://today.uci.edu.
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