Explaining Changes in Racial Identification across Time and Place

Texas A&M University, College Station TX

Investigators

Abstract

Racial and ethnic identity, and how people select into categories of race and ethnicity, can be fluid. This study investigates how racial and ethnic self-categorization changes across an individual’s life and is affected by time and place. The project links individuals and their offspring across 80 years of federal administrative and survey data, looking for shifts in racial and ethnic self-categorization. The researchers focus on categorization patterns of immigrants, children of immigrants, and people with more than one ethnic or racial background. The study also examines the effects of where people live and where they move on how individuals categorize their race and ethnicity. Linking individuals intergenerationally enables analysis of how racial and ethnic categorization is passed down through generations. This research contributes to a broader understanding of race and ethnicity in the United States and informs decision-making that relies on demographic data. This study links the 1940, 2000, 2010 and 2020 decennial Censuses, all years of the American Community Survey, and Social Security Administration Data to produce a dataset of millions of individuals. Using these data, researchers investigate patterns of racial and ethnic self-categorization over time and place. The study estimates how many individuals change racial categorization and how this varies across time, demographic and socioeconomic status, and geography. Researchers investigate how the characteristics of a place, including racial and ethnic demographics and patterns of racial residential segregation, affect self-categorization, and whether and how moving within the United States generates change. For children of immigrants, the project investigates how racial categorization in adulthood varies by birth cohort, country of origin, and place of parental residence. Looking inter-generationally, the study also considers how a parent’s racial categorization shapes their children’s racial and ethnic categorization. Findings from this research inform how demographers and other social scientists use racial and ethnic data. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.