Explaining Changes in Racial Identification across Time and Place

种族和民族身份，以及人们如何选择种族和民族类别，可以是流动的。本研究探讨了种族和民族自我分类如何在个人的生活中变化，并受到时间和地点的影响。该项目将个人及其后代与80年来的联邦行政和调查数据联系起来，寻找种族和民族自我分类的变化。研究人员专注于移民，移民子女和具有一个以上民族或种族背景的人的分类模式。这项研究还考察了人们居住的地方和他们搬到哪里对个人如何分类他们的种族和民族的影响。将个体代际联系起来可以分析种族和民族分类是如何代代相传的。这项研究有助于更广泛地了解美国的种族和民族，并为依赖人口统计数据的决策提供信息。这项研究将1940年，2000年，2010年和2020年十年一次的人口普查，美国社区调查的所有年份以及社会保障管理局的数据联系起来，以产生数百万人的数据集。利用这些数据，研究人员调查了不同时间和地点的种族和民族自我分类模式。该研究估计了有多少人改变了种族分类，以及这在时间、人口统计和社会经济地位以及地理位置上的变化。研究人员调查了一个地方的特征，包括种族和民族人口统计数据以及种族居住隔离模式，如何影响自我分类，以及在美国境内移动是否以及如何产生变化。对于移民的子女，该项目调查了成年后的种族分类如何因出生队列、原籍国和父母居住地而异。从代际的角度来看，这项研究还考虑了父母的种族分类如何塑造他们孩子的种族和民族分类。这项研究的结果为人口统计学家和其他社会科学家如何使用种族和民族数据提供了信息。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.