Richard Alba
Distinguished Professor of Sociology, CUNY Graduate School and University Center
Chapter Member: New York City SSN
Areas of Expertise:
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About Richard
Richard Alba has devoted his research for decades to understanding the impacts of immigration on the groups involved and on the societies that receive them. Recently, he has argued against the widely believed majority-minority narrative for the U.S., according to which whites will soon become a numerical minority. He points to the surge of young people from mixed minority and white family backgrounds as a better way of understanding the changes brought by increasing diversity.
Contributions
In the News
Research discussed by , in "Trump Says the Country is ‘Full.' But that isn’t True, Data Shows.," New Jersey Online, April 24, 2019.
Opinion: "There’s a Big Problem with How the Census Measures Race," Richard Alba, The Washington Post, February 6, 2018.
Research discussed by , in "Even Experts Can’t Agree on Monuments–and that’s Okay," CO.Design, January 16, 2018.
Research discussed by , in "No Traveling for New York’s Columbus Statue, Mayor Decides," New York Times, January 12, 2018.
Opinion: "The Likely Persistence of a White Majority," Richard Alba, The American Prospect, January 11, 2016.
Opinion: "U.S. Can Do Better Job of Integrating Immigrants," Richard Alba (with ), San Diego Union-Tribune, September 24, 2015.
Opinion: "The Strange Math of the Heritage Foundation’s Immigration Report," Richard Alba, Democracy Journal, May 17, 2013.
Research discussed by , in "Study: Conservative Anti-Immigration Paper by Controversial Scholar Had Basic Errors," Mother Jones, May 16, 2013.
Research discussed by , in "Conservative Immigration Scholar: Black and Hispanic Immigrants Are Dumber Than European Immigrants," Mother Jones, May 8, 2013.
Guest on NPR's All Things Considered with Audie Cornish, January 28, 2013.
Research discussed by , in "While Wall Street Gets More Diverse, White Men Still Take Home Much More Money ," Huffington Post, December 3, 2011.
Research discussed by , in "Report Parses Wall Street Workforce," Wall Street Journal, December 2, 2011.
Research discussed by , in "Children of Hispanic Immigrants Continue to Favor English, Study of Census Finds," New York Times, December 8, 2004.
Publications
The Children of Immigrants at School: A Preliminary Look at Integration in the United States and Western Europe (edited with ) (New York University Press, forthcoming).
Shows how the children coming from low-status immigrant families are lagging behind their mainstream peers in the schools of the United States and four western European countries at a time when the need for highly educated workers is increasing everywhere. The fruit of an international study involving 25 social scientists, this book addresses a number of reforms that can be undertaken to ameliorate this inequality.
"Mexican Americans as a Paradigm for Contemporary Intragroup Heterogeneity" (with ). Ethnic and Racial Studies 37, no. 3 (2013): 466.
Examines theories of racialization and assimilation in regards to the position of immigrant-origin populations in American society – and finds reason to think that heterogeneity, for Mexican Americans at least, is increasing in the twenty-first century.
"Blurring the Color Line: The New Chance for a More Integrated America" (Harvard University Press, 2009).
Argues that the social cleavages that separate Americans into distinct, unequal ethno-racial groups could narrow dramatically in the coming decades – but demographic shifts will only benefit disadvantaged American minorities if they are provided with access to education and training.
"Remaking the American Mainstream: Assimilation and Contemporary Immigration" (with ) (Harvard University Press, 2003).
Demonstrates the continuing importance of assimilation in American life even as institutional changes, from civil rights legislation to immigration law, have provided a more favorable environment for nonwhite immigrants and their children.