Benigno E. Aguirre

Structural and assimilationist explanations of Asian American intermarriage

This study represents our efforts to synthesize two intermarriage perspectives--one explaining intermarriage at the micro level using individual attributes the other explaining it at the macro level using aggregated community characteristics. The 5% Public Use Microdata Samples from the 1980 U.S. Census were used to link individual and community data. The empirical assessment of the linked model showed great promise indicating that the explanatory power of our model was significantly improved when one set of factors was supplemented by the other. Our findings supported the cultural assimilation hypothesis but contradicted the structural assimilation arguments. Contextual factors such as group size and sex ratio also exerted strong structural constraints on marital choices. (EXCERPT)

Persistence and Change in Asian Identity among Children of Intermarried Couples

In recent years, a significant amount of attention has been devoted to the survival of ethnicity among multiracial people in the United States. This concern is especially evident in the case of the offspring of Asian-Anglo couples. While scholars have speculated on the extent to which Asian ethnicity will continue to persist among multiracial children, little empirical work has addressed this concern. In this analysis, we use a multilevel model to examine the ethnic identification (as reported by parents) of children of Asian-Anglo couples. Data from the 1980 Public-Use Microdata Sample for California are used in the analysis. The results indicate that the majority of the children had Anglo ethnic identities. The multivariate findings also identify several variables that are related to childrens ethnic identification.

The SES selectivity of interracially married Asians

How do outmarried Asians compare to their inmarried counterparts and to their spouses in terms of socioeconomic status? We attempt to answer this question by testing hypotheses derived from assimilation, exchange, and economic theories. The study is conducted using a representative U.S. sample of married Asians. Results based on multinomial logit analyses indicate that Asian women with lower educational attainment have a higher propensity to outmarry racially, irrespective of the race of their husbands. Corresponding findings for Asian men provide weak evidence of negative selectivity. Furthermore, those who outmarry racially tend to marry persons with lower levels of education than themselves. While challenging a few conventional wisdoms ingrained in sociological and economic theories, these findings support several others.

In Search of Asian war brides

Because of the long presence of U.S. soldiers in Asia, war-bride marriages involving servicemen and Asian women have been formed throughout the century. The literature, however, contains little empirically sound information on Asian war brides. This analysis develops a methodology to identify war brides and applies it to estimate the number of war brides from the six major Asian groups, using the national 1980 Public Use Microdata Sample. Further analysis comparing Asian war brides with other groups of Asian wives tends to support the traditional and lower socioeconomic images commonly associated with Asian war brides.

The Human Ecology of Tornadoes

This paper offers an empirical test of the impact of human ecological patterns and other known correlates on tornado occurrence. It uses the National Severe Storms Forecast Center’s information on tornadoes from 1950 through 1990 and employs ecological data from the U.S. Bureau of the Census and the Environmental Protection Agency. The results show that metropolitan and other urban counties have higher odds of tornado occurrence than rural counties, and that the probability of occurrence of tornadoes increases with increases in the number of previous tornadoes. The paper assesses the meaning of this finding for demographers, atmospheric scientists, engineers, and disaster managers.

Elderly Mexican Americans: Nativity and Health Access

Information from the 1976 Survey of Income and Education are used to explore nativity differences in the levels of functional impairment and access to some kinds of medical resources among elderly Mexican Americans. The data indicate that foreign-born status is weakly associated with greater functional disability. It is more strongly associated with some differences in access to medical resources. Some implications for policy and long-term care are discussed.