Middle Eastern Immigrant Intermarriage and Boundaries of Race and Belonging in the United States

• In Event: 2166 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 4: Interracial Relationships

Abstract

Questions of Middle Eastern/North African and Muslim immigrant difference and integration occupy a central place in the U.S. public imagination today, informing debates about immigration policy, national security, and the boundaries of American pluralism. However, little is known about patterns of integration for those who trace their ancestry to Middle Eastern and North African countries, in part due to their “statistical invisibility” in institutionalized categories of ethnicity and race. We provide a partial picture of integration patterns using the Current Population Survey (pooled 2010-2017) to estimate patterns of intra- and inter-marriage for first- and second-generation Middle Eastern and North African immigrants. Compared to other immigrant populations, rates of inter-marriage are relatively high for both the first-generation (26%) and second-generation (74%), and there is little evidence of “pan-ethnic” patterns of marriage among groups from different origin countries. Logistic regression results suggest intermarriage is less common for MENA immigrants who identify as Asian or Black, relative to their White counterparts. These findings highlight the importance of further data collection and research on the Middle Eastern and North African immigrant populations of the United States, in order to understand their unique social experiences in the context of the U.S. ethno-racial hierarchy.

Authors

• Elyas Bakhtiari, College of William and Mary

• Deenesh Sohoni, College of William & Mary