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ARE ASIAN AMERICANS WHO HAVE INTERRACIAL RELATIONSHIPS POLITICALLY DISTINCT?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2018

Danielle Casarez Lemi  and
Augustine Kposowa
Danielle Casarez Lemi*
Affiliation:
Southern Methodist University
Augustine Kposowa
Affiliation:
University of California, Riverside
*
*Corresponding author: Danielle Casarez Lemi, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Political Science, Southern Methodist University, PO Box 750100, Dallas, TX 75275. E-mail: dlemi@mail.smu.edu.
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Abstract

Research on interracial marriage and relationships uses the incidence of interracial romantic relationships to measure immigrant assimilation. Little attention, however, has been paid to the implications of interracial relationships for racial group politics. Are those who practice exogamy politically distinct from those who do not? We develop testable hypotheses from existing theories of and literature on interracial marriages/relationships. We test these hypotheses on several outcomes using the 2008 National Asian American Survey of Asian Americans, as this group has one of the highest rates of interracial marriage with Whites. We find that those with interracial partners are more likely to be concerned about racial issues, less likely to favor co-ethnic candidates and belong to ethnically concentrated civic groups, but are no more likely to be concerned about immigration or to favor a pathway to citizenship. We offer some theoretical reasons for these findings and discuss the implications of these findings for immigrant assimilation, interracial marriage, and the American racial order.

Keywords

Asian AmericansAssimilationPolitical AttitudesImmigrants
Type
State of the Art
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , Fall 2017 , pp. 557 - 575
Copyright
Copyright © Hutchins Center for African and African American Research 2018 

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