Immigration and Its Impact on Hawaii’s Racial Composition: 1971 to 2000

ABSTRACT

Hawaii is one of the most racially diverse places in the world, with many racial groups of relatively small sizes. The indigenous people, Hawaiians, have experienced a very high rate of intermarriage in the past few decades. Although high outmarriage is common among all groups, Hawaiians are unique in two characteristics. First, they do not have outside sources to replenish their ethnic stock like most other groups in the islands. Secondly, outmarried Hawaiians tend to have higher socio-economic status than inmarried Hawaiians. Consequentially, the number of native Hawaiians will inevitably decrease and have lower family socio-economic status at the same time. This paper examines the theme that changing definition of a Hawaiian is historically related to immigration of Pacific Islanders from many Pacific islands, and the trend continues today. The contemporary Pacific Islander immigrants who settled in Hawaiian from 1971 to 2000 made a small contribution to Hawaii’s racial profile, but they tend to have lower education and occupational status when compared to immigrants to come from other parts of the world. The study concludes that although Hawaiians were originated from immigration, the current trend will not significantly change their demographic and socio-economic status quo..