Interracial Marriage Among Immigrants

Traditionally, people have believed that when a person marries outside of their race, they do so as a way to escape from their race, culture, or traditional beliefs. In contrast, popular culture theorizes that interracial marriages are motivated not by a desire to leave behind one’s heritage, but by love between two people who happen to be of different races. In this paper, I seek to analyze and compare these two perspectives, proposing a theory that combines the two by accounting for a person’s upbringing and beliefs when deciding what their motivation may be. I first analyze the traditional belief of interracial marriage in comparison to the popular culture belief and present my theory combining the two. I then analyze the effect of dominant versus nondominant culture on motivations, and use examples from popular culture to look at the effect a person’s culture and upbringing can have their motivations for marriage. Lastly, I explain how my perspective will affect the way I live my life.

The community has a great impact on mate selection and family formation (McGoldrick, 1998). Molina et al., (2004) argue that communities serve as proxies for extended families in many societies and are extremely important in bringing intercultural couples together. People who are in intercultural relationship must understand that there will be challenges and obstacles from others that are against interracial or intercultural relationships. If the relationship is valuable to them then they will be able to over come adversity such as prejudice and discrimination and a host of other negative challenges they may occur.

It is expected that ultimately there will be a loss of ethnic distinctiveness for immigrants in the U.S., meaning the lack of attachment to the country of origin. (Golash-Boza, 2006) It is argued that all ethnic distinctiveness will no longer exist by the seventh or eighth generations. Before exploring the influence of foreign born vs. U.S. born parents on their children’s cultural assimilation; the different theories of assimilation will be explored. The idea of Assimilation came about in the early 20th century. (Golash-Boza, 2006) Assimilation is surrounded by two theories, the first that all immigrants will assimilate sooner or later and that the generational status of the individual is one of the main factors in determining the

Families around the world consist of many variations. The traditional family includes a mother and father of the same racial background and their children. While this is the most acceptable type of family dynamic, today there are families that consist of countless different types of deviations. Many children grow up with one parent, gay parents, or with their grandparents. There are also families that consist of two parents that are of different races. Interracial families consist of relatives who are from diverse origins. Interracial families include families where the parents are of two different races or when the adopted children are of a different race than their parents.

After going through the literature given in Gallagher's compilation related to racism and romance, one can easily understand the shift observed in racist attitude over last few decades. Considering the statistics given, it is visible that Black-White marriages and Asian-American marriages were a taboo in the early twentieth century however this trend has gain familiarity and fame in the masses reflecting that individuals from Black and Asian ethic groups are becoming more acceptable to Whites.

In 1958, an interracial couple living in Virginia was arrested after getting married. This started the Supreme Court Case - Loving v. Virginia, which took place in 1967. At that time, interracial marriage was illegal in some states, one of those states being Virginia. In the 1950s, there was a lot of conflict going on. For an example, the civil rights movement was growing, and the campaign against communism revealed the hidden divisions in American society. A group of Americans that is continually growing spoke out against inequality and injustice during the 1950s. African Americans had been fighting against racial discrimination for centuries; during the 1950s, however, the struggle against racism and segregation entered the mainstream of American life. (History, The 1950s) Although they weren’t very common, they were definitely frowned upon by society. The Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court Case changed people’s views on interracial marriage, helped it become legal in every state, and shaped the American culture of today.

The family issue I will be analyzing is interfaith marriage. Interfaith marriage is simply marriage between two people who belong to or identify with different religious groups. However simple the definition may seem, the reality of interfaith marriage can be far more complex. For most of human history it has been a social taboo to marry outside of one 's faith. However, in recent years it has become much more acceptable, even to the point of seeming to essentially be a non-factor as far as society is concerned. Nevertheless, with the inevitable differences in customs and beliefs, and despite social acceptance, interfaith marriages can still cause major conflict in the household. This paper will explore seven different sociological theories, and attempt to explain how they can decipher the effects of interfaith marriage upon the family.

The marriage is one of the best things to make a happy life. Many years ago, parents had arranged marriages for their children. In Asia, as the customs of Vietnam, parents who decide and arrange the marriages of their children. Normally, parents flanked by close friends so they wanted their children to marry parent friend’s children, and gratitude between them will be even stronger together. Additionally, parents arranged for their children to marry the wealthy children to give their children full life. Also, parents choose their child partners and it is their customs. These children have no right to disobey and reject marriage. Their children married without ever knowing each other or see each other 's face. According to the book “The Immigrant Advantage,” it has a story of the Indian girl married under the marriage arranged by her parents. Until now, the Indian customs that still exist. Not only in India, in other countries, there is still customary marriages arranged by parents. Vietnam is no longer

First, I will identify and compare individuals’ attitudinal ethnic boundaries found in the 2016 NAAS dataset to boundaries observed from actual interethnic and interracial marriage patterns in the 5-year ACS PUMS dataset. Additionally, multivariate analyses will identify and compare factors that explain such boundary formation in both individual attitudes and intermarriage patterns. Second, I will perform multinomial regression analyses using the pooled ACS dataset to identify how socioeconomic factors, often used to measure the extent of minority incorporation into the mainstream society, affect Asian American interethnic and interracial marriages differently. I seek to explore how nativity and socioeconomic status may explain diverging marital assimilation patterns in relation to Asian American ethnic and racial boundary formation. Lastly, I will examine the effects of gender on Asian Americans’ intermarriage patterns, using multinomial regression analyses of the ACS dataset to identify how socioeconomic and immigrant generational factors may influence men and women differently for each Asian ethnic group. Hierarchical cluster analyses will also be employed to examine the implications of the clustering patterns of Asian American intermarriage on the larger U.S. race

According to the classic assimilation theory, intermarriage between an immigrant group and the dominant population reduces social boundaries and eventually leads to a reduction in the salience of an ethnic identity. Because the offspring of intermarried couples may opt out of defining themselves as members of an ethnic group, intermarriage may affect the future size and shape of an ethnic population. Among Hispanics, intermarriage with non-Hispanic whites or non-Hispanic blacks may ultimately lead to a blurring of racial/ethnic boundaries. At the same time, intermarriage between members of different Hispanic subgroups may strengthen pan-ethnicity, or the adoption of a “Hispanic” identity instead of an identity as a member of a specific national-origin

After analysis the historical, political, social, geographical and statistical data presented in the thesis, one can undoubtedly grasp the processes which shaped the American society in a more global way. Of course, this short thesis in no means is able to cmprehensively describe the whole of American immigration history and sociological implications of the related phenomena in great detail, however, it can serve as a starting point for further reading and research. The American ethnicity itself is a topic which has been largely scrutinised by many academics, yet one can still find many areas which demand further inquiry.

I will be exploring the sociological affects of interracial adoptions. One theory I will be applying to this topic is the double consciousness theory. Consciousness theory explains how we have different identities and how they may conflict with each other. An example of this would be when people point out that you are not the same race as your family. If you are adopted by a white couple , part of you believes that you are white . Your identity shifts when others outside the family mentions you are something else. Ideal Types is another theory I will be applying as well. In an ideal family the members are suppose to favor . For instance my Father and Mother were both blondes at one time ( my mother still is ) . My father has blue eyes and

In Claudia Kolker’s book The Immigrant Advantage, she talks about the cultural tradition of arranged marriages brought by South Asian immigrants to the United States. Kolker agrues that arranged marriages are much more effective in finding a spouse than traditional marriages. Kolker believes that this tradition of assistive marriage should be adopted by Americans. Research and studies have shown that “women in arranged marriages rated the highest marital status” (Kolker, 71) compared to couples who have arranged marriages. Arranged marriage is great for individuals who are ready to settle down and start their own life without wasting any time finding a partner. Arranged marriage saves a great amount of time on dating people who are not compatible with your personality or beliefs. As Kolker states, assistive marriage does not just save time in finding a lifelong partner but, it also leads to exceptional happiness between the couple than a traditional marriage reported by couples during studies. Traditions brought by immigrants such as, assistive marriage should be considered by American traditions.

The two articles used were “Understanding the Occurrence of Interracial Marriage in the United States through Differential Assimilation” (Lewis, Ford- Robinson, 2010) and “Marital Dissolution among Interracial Couples” (Zhang, Van Hook, 2009). The first article “Understanding the Occurrence of Interracial Marriage in the United States through Differential Assimilation”, spoke about the unprecedented changes that our society is going though in the 21st century.

In addition to these basic problems, another major issue ascends about religion. Intercultural marriage is not just a union between two cultures, but also of two religions. Many a times, marriages face a breakup or divorce just because the two are not able to unite in terms of their respective religions. In such a situation, one partner either endure their own religion or change their preferences for the other. But, then they might have quarrels on religious matters when it comes to family or for deciding one religion for their children. Like in the above case, Stella is a Christian and Omar is a Muslim. It was very difficult for both of them to perform rituals of each other’s religion during the matrimony and later as well.