Revisiting the Marginal Man: Bridging Immigration Scholarship and Mixed-Race Studies

Abstract

Immigrant and multiracial populations have both attracted attention for their significant impact on the demographic makeup of the United States. The anticipation of their continued growth raises important questions about how their increasing representation may alter the racial hierarchy. Although immigration scholarship frequently interprets intermarriage and multiracial identity as markers of assimilation, a large disconnect exists between the fields of immigration and mixed-race studies. This article bridges the gap between the two areas of scholarship by tracing their sociological origins to a shared theoretical progenitor: the marginal man. Through narrow interpretations of the resolution to experiences of marginality, the assimilation paradigm has largely failed to take into consideration the implications of multiracial identity, examining it only as transitive state assessed primarily through parental identification or within existing frameworks of immigrant identity. Based on interviews with 26 multiracial adults who have at least one immigrant parent, this study examines the meaning, content, and salience of multiracial identity for analyses of assimilation. Although much scholarship is concerned with the eroding and expanding boundaries of whiteness, this research analyzes how both part-white and nonwhite multiracial children of immigrant experiences contribute to understanding the role of multiraciality in blurring, crossing, or disrupting the boundaries that divide racial groups. The findings indicate that multiracial identity assertion was a mechanism for study participants to claim connection and belonging to multiple ethnoracial groups, rather than be rendered marginalized, distant, or partial with respect to their immigrant heritage(s).