A Qualitative Study of Asian Americans Who Intermarry in the United States: What Are Their Experiences?

Background and Purpose: Interracial and interethnic marriages have been rising in the United States for decades. In 2015, Asians were the most likely newlyweds to marry someone of a different race or ethnicity, at 29%, with Asian women more likely than Asian men to intermarry. Intermarriage is noted to be a difficult adjustment as culture, language, and family expectations can clash. Juxtaposed with these facts are reports of a rise in hate crimes against Asians, believed to be spurred by the pandemic, anti-immigrant sentiment, coupled with racism which can also affect the couple’s well-being. Given this rising intermarried population and the challenges they may face, social workers need an up-to-date understanding of these couples’ experiences to better provide services. Drawing on a thematic analysis of interviews with 11 Asians who have intermarried, we explore their experiences and offer implications for social work practice and research.

Methods: Surveys and Interviews with 9 Asian women and 2 Asian men who married Whites were conducted from 2020-2021 by MSW students. The sample is part of an on-going mixed-methods study of intermarriage. Participants were recruited through personal contacts and online platforms. After completing IRB training, the interviewers received training in how to administer a survey and conduct a qualitative interview. Using grounded theory coding, each author on our bi-racial (Asian and White) team read interviews and identified themes. The authors discussed the genesis of the themes and how what each author discovered informed the other authors. The authors then returned to the interviews and coded using the agreed upon themes. They met again to resolve differences in what they had individually coded.

Results: We identified five themes from the data: Societal Press which refers to the racialized atmosphere that pervades the U.S. and affects Asians; White Privilege which refers to the status and protection that Asian respondents perceived from being married to a White person when the respondents faced racism; Family Relations which can be positive or negative (e.g., microaggressions) and emanate from extended family and/or in-laws; Communication which refers to within couple differences as well as open communication as a strength and coping approach; and Parental Responsibilities which refer to concerns about the racial socialization of their bi-racial children. Societal press, our first theme, is overarching as it influences all other themes. Overall, couples perceived their relationship to be positive and supportive, particularly those from similar socioeconomic backgrounds, and viewed interracial marriage generally as a strength. However, in some cases, White spouses’ lack of racial awareness made respondents feel more marginalized and less understood.

Conclusions and Implications: The findings suggest that interracial marriage impacts all relationships in multiple systems and that acknowledging differences and openly communicating about them with a strengths-based focus across family systems may help all family members. Social work practitioners may employ these results in providing culturally sensitive strength-based services for interracial families. Implications for future research include differentiating between first and later generation Asian Americans and differentiating between the cultures of Asian Americans based on their country of origin.