Getting to Know You? Latino-Anglo Social Contact

In: Social science quarterly, Band 81, Heft 1, S. 67-83

Abstract

Most research on assimilation of the large & growing Latino population in the US focuses on educational & economic advances. Examined here are the frequency, antecedents, & consequences of social contact between Latinos & Anglos, based on data from the 1989/90 National Latino Political Survey of 1,546 Mexican, 589 Puerto Rican, & 682 Cuban Americans. Social contact between Latinos & Anglos appears to be considerably more frequent than that between African Americans & whites. In all three Latino groups, more or less the same factors encourage such contact. However, there is no consistent or substantial relationship between contact with Anglos & affect for them. The relatively high frequency of Latino-Anglo social contact is not especially surprising, nor is the finding that higher levels of contact are related to other measures of assimilation. More extensive research will be needed, however, to unravel the consequences of such contact. 3 Tables, 34 References. Adapted from the source document.