Understanding the Inter-Generational Transmission of Minority Identity: How Mothers in New Zealand Label Their Biracial Maori European Children

Tahu Kukutai, Stanford University

Recent studies have shown many intermarried parents identify their child as monoracial in surveys, even when given the option to assign multiple races. The identification of biracial children as a minority race is often assumed to reflect the disposition of the minority parent, even though few studies control for which parent identified the child, or the specific racial heritage of the minority parent. This paper uses New Zealand data on the ethnic labels assigned to Maori-European children by their mothers, to examine two potential explanations for the uneven transmission of minority racial identity: 1) mainstream parents actively choose to affiliate their child with the minority parent’s race; 2) the diffuse effects of multi-generational intermarriage means minority parents who acknowledge their own mixed heritage are less reliable transmitters of their minority ethnicity. Regression analyzes show both factors to be significant, net of other explanatory factors.