How do newcomer immigrants become part of “us”? The U.S. assimilation research proposes that immigrants, over two or more generations, attain socioeconomic status (SES) mobility and parity with native-born whites and join the majority group. Evidence comes from European ethnics’ SES in the 20^th century. This is SES mobility hypothesis is now applied to non-European groups in the 21^st century. A competing boundary-expansion hypothesis, however, has been consolidating for two reasons. First, the emergence of SES mobility hypothesis in the 1980s contradicts the ethnicity literature that until then hypothesized the continuity of ethnic differences. Second, newly available longitudinal data fail to support sweeping SES mobility patterns among ethnic Europeans. The boundary-expansion hypothesis, instead, conjectures that when non-European immigrants arrived in the U.S. in high numbers in the late 20^th century, native-born whites expanded their boundary to include the ethnics to maintain institutional and demographic hegemony. We test the two hypotheses using the Corpus of Historical American English (COHA) 1900-2010 and leveraging machine learning techniques. We find, on balance, evidence for boundary-expansion hypothesis. We combine insights from both hypotheses to construct a new boundary model of assimilation. The model implies that, in the absence of non-European immigration, some European ethnics would have remained outside the boundary of whiteness and that, now, only a new wave of demographic shift would propel boundary expansion toward non-Europeans.

About the speaker:

I am a Faculty member at UBC Sociology, UBC Science and Technology Studies program, and the UBC Centre for Migration Studies. Previously, I was an Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity.

In my work, I use an analytical toolkit consisting of the scientific method (of hypothesizing and falsification) and the genealogical method (of the social construction of knowledge). I bring this critical approach to the study of human migration, race, and sexuality/gender within the context of social theory, policy, and the law. In addition to theoretical work on methodological and conceptual developments, I have conducted multiple empirical research projects with immigrants/refugees from the Middle East, North and Sub-Saharan Africa, and Europe.

📅 Date: 11 November 2026

🕑 Time: 11:00am - 12:00pm

📍 Venue: CJT-9.29

🗣️ Language: English

🔗 Register here: https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_hdetail.aspx?guest=Y&ueid=108705