interracial marriage rate declines among asians

The Washington Post has an interesting story on recent trends in interracial marriage in America -- specifically, a decline in the rate of Hispanics and Asians marrying partners of other races in the past two decades: Immigrants' Children Look Closer for Love.

Sociologists and demographers are just beginning to study how the children of recent immigrants will date and marry. Conventional wisdom has it that in the open-minded Obama era, they will begin choosing spouses of other ethnicities as the number of interracial marriages rises.

But scholars are coming across a surprising converse trend. According to U.S. Census data, the number of native- and foreign-born people marrying outside their race fell from 27 to 20 percent for Hispanics and 42 to 33 percent for Asians from 1990 to 2000.

Scholars suggest it's all about the growing number of immigrants. It seems that the large immigrant population fundamentally changes the pool of potential partners for Asians and Hispanics. Thus, the second generation is more likely to marry people of their own ethnicity.

It's not quite like it was before, when there were only two Asian kids in your school -- you and this other boy/girl -- and everyone thought you two should go together to the prom. Forced coupling. Now half the school is Asian, so it's not such a big deal. Something like that.