Non-Hispanics with Latin American ancestry: Assimilation, race, and identity among Latin American descendants in the US

In the 2006 American Community Survey (ACS), 6% of respondents with Latin American ancestry answered ‘no’ when asked whether they were Hispanic themselves. Conventional definitions of the Hispanic population exclude such respondents as ‘not Spanish/Hispanic/Latino’ even though they are self-identified Latin American descendants. Since their exclusion may bias our assessments of Hispanic social mobility, it is important to know more about them. Non-Hispanic identification is most common among Latin American descendants who (1) list both Latin American and non-Latin American ancestries, (2) speak only English, and (3) identify as White, Black, or Asian when asked about their ‘race.’ Ancestry and racial identity are considerably more influential than respondents’ education, income, place of birth, or place of residence. These findings support both traditional straight-line assimilation and a more recent “racialized assimilation” theory in explaining discrepant responses to the ethnicity and ancestry questions among Latin American descendants.

► This study examines patterns of Hispanic identity among Latin American descendants.
► 12% of US born Latin American descendants identified as non-Hispanic in the 2006 ACS.
► Non-Hispanic identities among Latin American descendants are somewhat predictable.
► Racial identities are predictive of non-/Hispanic identities among Latin Americans in the US.
► Higher SES is predictive of non-Hispanic identity among Latin Americans in the US.