Ethnic Identification, Intermarriage, and Unmeasured Progress by Mexican Americans

Abstract

Using Census and CPS data, we show that U.S.-born Mexican Americans who marry non-Mexicans are substantially more educated and English proficient, on average, than are Mexican Americans who marry co-ethnics (whether they be Mexican Americans or Mexican immigrants). In addition, the non-Mexican spouses of intermarried Mexican Americans possess relatively high levels of schooling and English proficiency, compared to the spouses of endogamously married Mexican Americans. The human capital selectivity of Mexican intermarriage generates corresponding differences in the employment and earnings of Mexican Americans and their spouses. Moreover, the children of intermarried Mexican Americans are much less likely to be identified as Mexican than are the children of endogamous Mexican marriages. These forces combine to produce strong negative correlations between the education, English proficiency, employment, and earnings of Mexican-American parents and the chances that their children retain a Mexican ethnicity. Such findings raise the possibility that selective ethnic "attrition" might bias observed measures of intergenerational progress for Mexican Americans.

Parental Background and Union Formation Behavior of Native Born Individuals in Sweden with a Foreign Background

“…Consistent with this literature, the tendency of immigrants to marry within their group is a common finding [5,6]. However, explanations across disciplines vary regarding why individuals mate assortatively.…”

Immigrants and the Labor Market

“…There is some evidence that this leakage out of Latino ancestry is positively correlated with education so that the gains in education across generations are biased downwards (Duncan and Trejo, 2005) This more positive reading of the history of Latino immigrant education advances across generations has some cautions attached to it. First some care has to be exercised in assessing rates of find that the concern that educational generational progress among Latino immigrants has lagged behind other immigrant groups is largely unfounded.…”

Immigration and the rate of population mixing: explorations with a stylized model

“…They note that "the capacity to form and maintain exogamous unions (between native and foreign born) can be interpreted as the quintessence of successful integration" (p. 324). Referring to the work of Duncan and Trejo (2007), they observe too that "selectivity into intermarriage influences ethnic identification" and, hence, the measurement of integration for those with "immigrant ancestry" (p. 324). Substituting "cross-parenting" for "intermarriage," these observations relate directly to our focus in the present paper.…”