Richard Alba
Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Sociology & Africana Studies, CUNY Graduate 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.