Measuring ethnicity: challenges and opportunities for survey research

Abstract Measuring ethnic identity in social surveys has traditionally been problematic, often using a single question and allowing the respondent to choose one category from a pre-defined list. In this paper we discuss the rationale for and limitations of measuring a complex and multi-dimensional concept with a simple, uni-dimensional question. We propose that operationalizing ethnicity as multi-dimensional requires multiple questions to capture the complexity of the concept. Giving researchers a number of different measures enables them to focus on the dimensions of interest to them, and has the potential to open up the rich resources of theoretically robust survey research to researchers from a range of disciplines concerned with questions of ethnic identification.

[1]  J. Phinney.  The Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure , 1992 .

[2]  J. Phinney,et al.  Ethnic identity in college students from four ethnic groups. , 1990, Journal of adolescence.

[3]  Elizabeth Martin,et al.  CONTEXT EFFECTS FOR CENSUS MEASURES OF RACE AND HISPANIC ORIGIN , 1990 .

[4]  Kenneth Smith.  Some Critical Observations on the Use of the Concept of `Ethnicity' in Modood et al., Ethnic Minorities in Britain , 2002 .

[5]  Revisiting race/ethnicity as a variable in health research. , 2002, American journal of public health.

[6]  Kevin Howard.  Constructing the Irish of Britain: Ethnic recognition and the 2001 UK Censuses , 2006 .

[7]  D. Massey.  Latinos, Poverty, and the Underclass: A New Agenda for Research , 1993 .

[8]  R. Berthoud.  Defining ethnic groups: Origin or identify? 1 , 1998 .

[9]  A. Fuligni.  Adolescents From Immigrant Families , 1998 .

[10]  J. Itzigsohn,et al.  Immigrant incorporation and racial identity: Racial self-identification among Dominican immigrants , 2005 .

[11]  I. Rothera,et al.  Practicality of recording patient ethnicity in general practice: descriptive intervention study and attitude survey , 1996, BMJ.

[12]  J. Phinney,et al.  The Role of Language, Parents, and Peers in Ethnic Identity Among Adolescents in Immigrant Families , 2001 .

[13]  R. Bhopal.  Revisiting race/ethnicity as a variable in health research. , 2002, American journal of public health.

[14]  Yu Xie,et al.  The Racial Identification of Biracial Children with One Asian Parent: Evidence from the 1990 Census , 1997 .

[15]  M. Helbling.  Social influence networks and understanding of citizenship , 2009 .

[16]  Wolff-Michael Roth,et al.  Culture and Identity , 2003 .

[17]  M. Nobles.  Census and Identity: Racial categorization and censuses , 2001 .

[18]  Pyong Gap Min,et al.  Ethnic and sub-ethnic attachments among Chinese, Korean, and Indian immigrants in New York City , 2009 .

[19]  Stuart Hall.  Introduction: Who Needs ‘Identity’? , 2011 .

[20]  M. Hecht,et al.  Sociocultural Roots of Ethnic Identity , 1991 .

[21]  F. Bean,et al.  AMERICA'S CHANGING COLOR LINES: Immigration, Race/Ethnicity, and Multiracial Identification , 2004 .

[22]  C. Peach.  The ethnic minority populations of Great Britain , 1996 .

[23]  B. Tizard,et al.  The identity of mixed parentage adolescents. , 1995, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[24]  Edward Telles,et al.  Does it matter who answers the race question? Racial classification and income inequality in Brazil , 1998, Demography.

[25]  S. Singh.  Ethnicity in psychiatric epidemiology: Need for precision , 1997, British Journal of Psychiatry.

[26]  T. Blakely,et al.  Measuring Ethnicity in New Zealand: Developing Tools for Health Outcomes Analysis , 2007, Ethnicity & health.

[27]  S. Salway.  Labour market experiences of young UK Bangladeshi men: Identity, inclusion and exclusion in inner-city London , 2008 .

[28]  D. Kertzer,et al.  Census and Identity: Censuses, identity formation, and the struggle for political power , 2001 .

[29]  J. Phinney.  Ethnic identity in adolescents and adults: review of research. , 1990, Psychological bulletin.

[30]  Stuart Hall,et al.  Old and New Identities, Old and New Ethnicities , 2020, Theories of Race and Racism.

[31]  Luisa Farah Schwartzman.  Does Money Whiten? Intergenerational Changes in Racial Classification in Brazil , 2007 .

[32]  Alejandra M. Lopez.  Collecting and tabulating race/ethnicity data with diverse and mixed heritage populations: A case-study with US high school students , 2003 .

[33]  Yasmin Hussain,et al.  Citizenship, Ethnicity and Identity , 2005 .

[34]  P. Vedder,et al.  Language, ethnic identity, and the adaptation of Turkish immigrant youth in the Netherlands and Sweden , 2005 .

[35]  David R Williams,et al.  The concept and measurement of race and their relationship to public health: a review focused on Brazil and the United States. , 2004, Cadernos de saude publica.

[36]  A. Bonnett,et al.  Fitting into Categories or Falling Between Them? Rethinking ethnic classification , 2000 .

[37]  M. Bulmer.  A controversial census topic: race and ethnicity in the British census. , 1986, Journal of official statistics.

[38]  Alice Robbin,et al.  Counting on the Census? Race, Group Identity, and the Evasion of Politics , 2001 .

[39]  M. Freedman,et al.  Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of Culture Difference , 1970 .

[40]  G. Elder,et al.  Racial self-categorization in adolescence: multiracial development and social pathways. , 2006, Child development.

[41]  J. McDonnell,et al.  You're Brazilian, right? What kind of Brazilian are you? The racialization of Brazilian immigrant women , 2009 .

[42]  U. Maylor.  What is the meaning of ‘black’? Researching ‘black’ respondents , 2009 .

[43]  M. A. Wittig,et al.  Acculturation Among Three Racial/Ethnic Groups of Host and Immigrant Adolescents , 2008, American journal of community psychology.

[44]  G. Elder,et al.  The Greater Complexity of Lived Race: An Extension of Harris and Sim* , 2006 .

[45]  P. Aspinall.  The challenges of measuring the ethno-cultural diversity of Britain in the new millennium , 2000 .

[46]  Andreas Wimmer,et al.  The Making and Unmaking of Ethnic Boundaries: A Multilevel Process Theory1 , 2008, American Journal of Sociology.

[47]  W. Yancey.  Emergent Ethnicity: A Review and Reformulation. , 1976 .

[48]  U. S. Bureau,et al.  Questionnaire Effects on Measurements of Race and Spanish Origin , 2006 .

[49]  M. Cole.  Ethnicity, ‘status groups’ and racialization: A contribution to a debate on national identity in Britain , 2003 .

[50]  M. Ellis,et al.  Place, scale and the racial claims made for multiracial children in the 1990 US Census , 2009 .

[51]  K. Sillitoe,et al.  Ethnic group and the British census: the search for a question. , 1992, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A,.

[52]  D. Harris,et al.  Who is Multiracial? Assessing the Complexity of Lived Race , 2002, American Sociological Review.

[53]  J. Nazroo,et al.  `Race', Racism and Ethnicity: A Response to Ken Smith , 2002 .

[54]  A. Bonnett.  White identities : historical and international perspectives , 2000 .

[55]  R. Ballard.  Negotiating Race and Ethnicity: exploring the implications of the 1991 Census , 1996 .

[56]  P. Bloom,et al.  What do you think you are? , 2011, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[57]  Eliot R. Smith,et al.  Conceptualizing Social Identity: A New Framework and Evidence for the Impact of Different Dimensions , 1999 .

[58]  T. Modood,et al.  Changing ethnic identities , 1994 .

[59]  Natasha K. Warikoo,et al.  Gender and ethnic identity among second-generation Indo-Caribbeans , 2005 .

[60]  L. Ryan.  Who do you think you are? Irish nurses encountering ethnicity and constructing identity in Britain , 2007 .

[61]  A. Blum.  Resistance to Identity Categorization in France , 2002 .

[62]  P. Aspinall.  Collective Terminology to Describe the Minority Ethnic Population , 2002 .

[63]  N. Crowcroft,et al.  Describing race, ethnicity, and culture in medical research , 1996, BMJ.

[64]  Joane Nagel,et al.  Constructing Ethnicity: Creating and Recreating Ethnic Identity and Culture , 1994 .

[65]  R. Ballard.  The construction of a conceptual vision: ‘Ethnic Groups’ and the 1991 UK Census , 1997 .

[66]  A. Umaña‐Taylor,et al.  Latino adolescents' ethnic identity: is there a developmental progression and does growth in ethnic identity predict growth in self-esteem? , 2009, Child development.

[67]  Elizabeth Martin,et al.  M ethod ologica l Influences o n Co mparability of R ace M easurements: Several Cautionary Examples , 2003 .

[68]  J. Urla.  cultural politics in an age of statistics: numbers, nations, and the making of Basque identity , 1993 .

[69]  Richard Jenkins,et al.  Rethinking ethnicity: Identity, categorization and power , 1994 .

[70]  R. Bhavnani,et al.  Tackling the roots of racism: lessons for success , 2005 .

[71]  Peter Skerry.  Counting on the census? , 2000 .

[72]  J. Salt,et al.  Ethnicity in the 1991 census: Volume one. Demographic characteristics of the ethnic minority populations. , 1996 .

[73]  R. Farley.  Racial Trends and Differences in the United States 30 Years after the Civil Rights Decade , 1997 .

[74]  H. Bradby,et al.  Locating ethnicity and health: exploring concepts and contexts. , 2007, Sociology of health & illness.

[75]  C. Geertz,et al.  The Interpretation of Cultures , 1973 .

[76]  Warren Kidd,et al.  Culture and Identity , 2001 .

[77]  W. Darity,et al.  Latino racial choices: the effects of skin colour and discrimination on Latinos’ and Latinas’ racial self-identifications , 2008 .

[78]  J. Nazroo,et al.  Patterns of identity among ethnic minority people: Diversity and commonality , 2003 .

[79]  James Nazroo,et al.  Ethnic Minorities in Britain: diversity and disadvantage , 1997 .

[80]  R. Bhopal,et al.  Ethnicity as a variable in epidemiological research , 1994, BMJ.

[81]  W. Kymlicka,et al.  Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights. , 1996 .

[82]  P. Aspinall.  Operationalising the collection of ethnicity data in studies of the sociology of health and illness , 2001 .