Panethnic Identity

Development of Panethnic Identities

Since the passage of the liberalized Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1965 and a consequent increase in immigration from Asia—as well as from Latin America and Africa—immigrants to the United States are experiencing new forms of adaptation. Immigration scholars once believed that the newcomers would assimilate into mainstream society over generations, much like European immigrants did at the turn of the 20th century, becoming fully integrated into the dominant society such that no distinct ethnic groups remained. However, new immigrants and the second generation have not yet assimilated into mainstream society; ethnic or national origin identities remain salient, and patterns of behavior and identification suggest that new panethnic identities have emerged. These broad identities, which transcend ethnic or national origin boundaries, have developed in response to the larger society's racialized view of immigrants and ethnic minorities and are often expressed as part of a larger social movement for change. For example, tribes in different regions of the United States formed a pan-Indian social movement and adopted a pantribal identity to organize for collective goods. Scholars have also documented how diverse groups such as Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and Cubans have acted on a shared Latino identity to strengthen their communities. In addition, research has found that Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, Vietnamese, and South Asian Americans developed panethnic institutions and identities to form a cohesive Asian American community.

Ethnic groups tend to be distinct in terms of national origin, language, culture, religion, and collective history, so it has been a puzzle for scholars to understand how and why panethnic identities form. Even though panethnic identities are based on a shared culture and experience, scholars suggest that structural commonalities such as race are more likely to provide a basis for panethnic organizing and the development of panethnic identities. Most scholars agree that racialization, or the process through which ethnic groups are viewed and treated as racial categories, has led to the emergence of panethnic identities. Stephen Cornell pointed out that when societies are organized on the basis of race—when classification schemes, political and economic systems, and the public culture adopt racial boundaries as real—this provides the logic for the construction of panethnic identities. The process of racialization reinforces the belief that racial categories are significant. In a society where race is an important organizing principle, group members may respond to the constraints of racial boundaries by reasserting and reconstructing their identities to be based on a shared history and culture. This shared history is often characterized by common experiences of racial discrimination, stereotyping, and profiling, and the shared culture is composed of common experiences in terms of language use, values, norms, and family expectations. Panethnic identities are formed through the interaction between ascription by others in the larger society and assertions about a shared history made by the groups themselves. Such an understanding of panethnic identities recognizes the agency of ethnic groups and how racial categories are transformed and imbued with new meanings.

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