Patterns of Asian American Intermarriage and Marital Assimilation

Abstract

The significance of intermarriage in the assimilation of Asians in the United States was examined using data based on the 1980 Population Census of the United States. Ethnic differentials in intermarriage patterns within the Asian American population was also addressed by comparing six groups - - Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese. The main findings include a relatively high level of intermarriage among Asian Americans (25 percent of all marriages) and significant variations in outmarriage rates by ethnicity, nativity, age, and gender. We also observed that social distance, measured by an index of marital proximity, between Asian Americans and the majority population of non-Hispanic white Americans is lower than that for the two largest minority groups in the United States, blacks and Hispanics. Implications of the study for ethnic relations and assimilation of Asian Americans were discussed in the conclusion.