Introduction: Immigration and Changing Identities

This is the introduction to a special issue of the Journal devoted to “Immigration and Changing Identities.”  All nine articles explore how immigrants and their children view themselves in racial and ethnic terms, how U.S.-born individuals view immigrants of various backgrounds, and how the artificial constructs of race and ethnicity may be changing based on the increasing importance of immigration in American life. Although racial and ethnic categories are often assumed to be fixed and unchanging, the authors observe that “the historical, sociological, and psychological evidence convincingly document their dynamics and flexible nature.” Complicating the analysis is the tendency of some people to shift their primary identities over the course of their lifetime, for gender to influence preferred identity, and for the ethnic composition of a particular locality to influence changing racial and ethnic hierarchy.  The article contains separate sections exploring historical and contemporary evidence regarding the changing boundaries and status of whites, Asians, Hispanics, and Blacks.  For whites, the authors discuss the feelings of insecurity that led to the election of Donald Trump, as well as the “downgrading” of whiteness in some communities where large numbers of educated Asian-Americans live. For Hispanics, they discuss the “confusion and debate” over whether Hispanics should be considered a race or and ethnic group.  For blacks, they explore the impact of African and West-Indian immigrants and their children (now 10 percent of all immigrants) on the meaning of African-American identity. The authors also explore the implications of growing rates of intermarriage on racial categories in the United States. Rather than assuming the people will fit into existing racial categories, we may see the emergence of new racial categories, such as a new “beige majority,” consisting of most Hispanics and Asians, or in another formulation, a tripartite division consisting of “whites, honorary whites, and collective blacks.” What is clear, according to the authors, is that we need more research to address the multitude of questions regarding changing racial and ethnic identity in the U.S. (American Immigrant Policy Portal)

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