Race, Immigration, and Exogamy among the Native-born

Abstract

Did rising immigration levels change racial and ethnic exogamy patterns for young adults in the United States? Adding local demographics to Qian and Lichter’s national results, the authors examine the relationship between the sizes of the local immigrant populations in urban and rural areas and U.S.-born individuals’ exogamy patterns in heterosexual unions, controlling for the areas’ racial compositions. Using 2000 census race, ethnicity, and nativity data and log-linear models, the authors test hypotheses about the relationship between high levels of immigration from Asia and Latin America and endogamy rates for U.S.-born Latino/as and Asians. They find that U.S.-born Latino/as and Asians are not consistently more endogamous in high-immigrant areas once population composition differences across local areas are controlled. Surprisingly, U.S.-born Blacks and Native Americans are significantly less endogamous in areas with more immigrants.