When did European Ethnics Become White Americans? Whiteness and Non-European Immigrants in a Three-group Assimilation Scenario

• In Event: International Migration Section Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): 09. Ethnic boundary making

Abstract

Segmented and neo-assimilation theories posit that socioeconomic status (SES) mobility led ethnic Europeans to assimilate. Yet, recent longitudinal data do not show widespread SES mobility among ethnic Europeans in the 20th century. Hence there must be a different cause of their assimilation. We propose that it was boundary expansion by the white Anglo-Saxons. To build this boundary model, we rely on the broader sociological theories of boundary-work. These theories posit that each group self-identifies vis-à-vis an Other group and, consequently, that self and Other cannot completely assimilate to become one and dissolve the us-them binary. Accordingly, our three-group hypothesis proffers that the post-1965 arrival of non-Europeans created a three-group scenario with Anglo-Saxons, ethnics, and non-Europeans. Then, regardless of SES, the boundary of Anglo-Saxon whiteness could expand to include the European ethnics. Without the third group, ethnic Europeans, at least some of them, would remain non-assimilated. We also discuss the implications for non-European immigrants.

Authors

• Aryan Karimi, UBC

• Rima Wilkes, University of British Columbia