Unaccounted: Exploring the Impact of Ethnic Attrition on Estimates of Social and Economic Progress for U.S. Hispanics

Abstract

Current studies that track the social and economic progress of Hispanic individuals in the United States commonly rely on self-reported data to measure Hispanic identity. Prior research, however, shows that upwardly mobile members of the Hispanic population are less likely to self-report Hispanic ethnicity across generations (i.e., ethnic attrition), creating biased estimates of the social and economic progress made by individuals of Latin American ancestry. The current project uses data from the 1996-2018 waves of the March Current Population Survey to update prior work on ethnic attrition by incorporating data on more recent immigrant populations. The study also examines whether the degree of ethnic attrition varies by ancestral subgroups (e.g., Mexican, Cuban, Dominican, Central American, and South American) and across U.S. regions. While I confirm the findings of prior studies, significant heterogeneity in ethnic attrition exists across the ancestral subgroups studied. I discuss the implications of the findings for measuring and understanding the social incorporation of individuals with Latin American ancestry.