Looking Ahead

This chapter looks at racial and ethnic constructions and practices in the United States over the past century. Migration News is a scholarly publication that “summarizes the most important immigration and integration developments.” It is produced by Migration Dialogue, a group at the University of California, Davis, that aspires to provide “timely, factual and nonpartisan information and analysis of international migration issues.” An Irish Catholic has been president of the nation, and during his presidential campaign John Kerry was coy about the fact that he is not Irish. Intermarriage rates among white ethnics are so high that demographers have largely given up trying to trace socioeconomic differences among nationalities. Multiracial identity is now a point of public pride and private assertion; a social movement built around multiracial identity has shown surprising strength. The highest paid corporate executive on Wall Street in 2003 was black; some African Americans hold high elective office or judgeships; some are esteemed socially and culturally.

Political science · History · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies