What Constitutes Intermarriage for Multiracial People in Britain?

• Author: Miri Song
• Published date: 01 November 2015
• DOI: 10.1177/0002716215595387
• Date: 01 November 2015
• Subject Matter: Section I: Intermarriage, Boundary Crossing, and Identity

94 ANNALS, AAPSS, 662, November 2015

DOI: 10.1177/0002716215595387

What

Constitutes

Intermarriage

for Multiracial

People in

Britain?

By

MIRI SONG

595387ANN The Annals of the American AcademyWhat Constitutes Intermarriage for Multiracial People in Britain?

research-article2015

Intermarriage is of great interest to analysts because a

group’s tendency to partner across ethnic boundaries is

usually seen as a key indicator of the social distance

between groups in a multiethnic society. Theories of

intermarriage as a key indicator of integration are, how-

ever, typically premised upon the union of white and

nonwhite individuals, and we know very little about

what happens in the unions of multiracial people, who

are the children of intermarried couples. What consti-

tutes intermarriage for multiracial people? Do multira-

cial individuals think that ethnic or racial ancestries

are a defining aspect of their relationships with their

partners? In this article, I argue that there are no con-

ventions for how we characterize endogamous or

exogamous relationships for multiracial people. I then

draw on examples of how multiracial people and their

partners in Britain regard their relationships with their

partners and the significance of their and their part-

ners’ ethnic and racial backgrounds. I argue that part-

ners’ specific ancestries do not necessarily predict the

ways in which multiracial individuals regard their part-

ners’ ethnic and racial backgrounds as constituting dif-

ference or commonality within their relationships.

Keywords: intermarriage; multiracial people; rela-

tionships; partners; ancestry

There are now a growing number of studies on

intermarriage in Western multiethnic socie-

ties, where such unions are increasingly common,

especially in countries with postcolonial migrants

(and their descendants). Britain is witnessing

various streams of migration, as well as high rates

of interracial and interethnic partnering across

the second (and now third) generations. With the

relatively recent enlargement of the European

Union (EU), the settlement and eventual growth

Miri Song is a professor of sociology at the University of

Kent. She is the author of Choosing Ethnic Identity (Polity

2003), coauthor of Mixed Race Identities (Palgrave

Macmillan 2013), and other books and edited volumes.

She is currently writing a book, ‘Who is Multiracial a

Further Generation Down?’ for NYU Press.

WHAT CONSTITUTES INTERMARRIAGE FOR MULTIRACIAL PEOPLE IN BRITAIN? 95

of that (EU) second generation also raises interesting questions about how we con-

ceptualize and document these trends in Britain.

Intermarriage is of great interest to analysts because a group’s tendency to part-

ner across ethnic boundaries is considered a key indicator of the social distance

between groups in a multiethnic society. However, we know very little about what

happens the next generation down: the unions of multiracial people, who are the

children of intermarried couples. The 2011 England Wales Census revealed that

the “mixed/multiple ethnic groups” grew from 1.2 percent in 2001 to 2.2 percent

of the population in 2011 (Office for National Statistics [ONS] 2012), but this is

unquestionably an undercount if the population of mixed people is based on the

number of people of interracial parentage, as opposed to those who self-identify as

mixed on official forms (Nandi and Platt 2012). The mixed population is certainly

one of the fastest-growing sectors of the British population (Coleman 2010).

Studies of “multiracial” (or “mixed race”) people and families are now well estab-

lished, especially in North America (see Rockquemore and Brunsma 2002; Root

1996; Spickard 1989; Bratter 2010, to name just a few), but increasingly, also, in

Britain (see Aspinall and Song 2013; Tizard and Phoenix 1993; Ali 2003; Twine 2010;

Caballero, Edwards, and Smith 2008). By “multiracial,” I mean someone with ances-

tors from more than one “racial” group, for example, black/white or Asian/white.

Most of these studies are about multiracial young people or children, and none of

these studies has specifically explored the partnering of multiracial people in

Britain—something that provides a revealing snapshot of contemporary ethnic and

racial boundaries and social divisions. Because multiracial individuals are by defini-

tion mixed, their very mixedness illustrates the limited utility of theorizing (about

intermarriage and integration) based upon monoracial groups, which are seen as

occupying relatively stable positions in a racially stratified society (Song 2003).

In Britain, most multiracial people (most of whom are part white) partner with

white individuals (ONS 2005). Does this constitute intermarriage or not, and how

do multiracial people regard the nature of their relationships with their partners?

In this article, I first argue that there are no conventions for how we characterize

endogamous or exogamous relationships for multiracial people. I then draw on a

few examples of how multiracial people and their partners (from a Leverhulme

Trust–funded research project in Britain) regard their relationships with their part-

ners. Do multiracial individuals in Britain think that their ethnic or racial back-

grounds are a defining aspect of their relationships with their partners? Is a shared

ethnicity or race (overlap) an important basis for their relationships with one

another? A focus upon the case of multiracial people and their partners addresses

increasingly pressing questions about generational change, multiple axes of differ-

ence (and commonality), and the salience of ethnic and racial difference.

Intermarriage as an Indicator of Integration

On the whole, there is evidence that attitudes toward interracial relationships

have relaxed in Britain and other societies, such as the U.S. By “interracial”