Overview of research agenda

My research contributes to four major scholarly areas: second-generation mobility; intergroup relations and racial attitudes; Asian American diversity and growth; and neighborhood integration and urban change. I adopt many methodological tools, including survey experiments, longitudinal analyses of panel data, spatial regressions using census data, visualization of administrative data, and qualitative analyses of in-depth semi-structured interviews.

Second-Generation Mobility and Integration

At 12 percent of the total U.S. population, the second generation is diverse in ethnoracial and socioeconomic origins, prompting scholarly and policy concerns about their successful integration into U.S. society. While prior work has raised concerns about a second-generation decline, my research has documented significant second-generation mobility and little evidence of a second-generation decline. My research has examined the processes of cultural, linguistic, political, socioeconomic, and spatial assimilation. My research makes two contributions. Conceptually, I highlight the importance of contextualized reference groups to benchmark second-generation progress. Such reference groups can be race- and gender-specific, depending on the integration outcomes. Methodologically, my work adopts a longitudinal and life-course approach in assessing second-generation integration, with a primary focus on the transition into young adulthood.

Tran, Van C. 2020. “Second-Generation Contextual Mobility: Neighborhood Attainment from Birth to Young Adulthood in the United States.” International Migration Review 54(2): 356-387.

Tran, Van C., Jennifer Lee and Tiffany Huang. 2019. “Revisiting the Asian Second-Generation Advantage.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 42(13): 2248-2269.

Tran, Van C. 2019. “Social Mobility across Immigrant Generations: Recent Evidence and Future Data Requirements.” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 667(1):105-188.

Valdez, Nicol M. and Van C. Tran. 2019. “Gendered Context of Assimilation: The Female Second-Generation Advantage among Latinos.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 46(9):1709-36.

Tran, Van C., Jennifer Lee, Oshin Khachikian and Jess Lee. 2018. “Hyper-Selectivity, Racial Mobility, and the Remaking of Race.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 4(5):189-209.

Tran, Van C. and Nicol M. Valdez. 2017. “Second-Generation Decline or Advantage? Latino Assimilation in the Aftermath of the Great Recession.” International Migration Review 51(1):155-90.

Tran, Van C. 2017. “Beyond the Ballot Box: Age-At-Arrival, Civic Institutions, and Political Participation among Latinos.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 43(5):766-790.

Tran, Van C. 2010. “English Gain vs. Spanish Loss? Language Assimilation among Second-Generation Latinos in Young Adulthood.” Social Forces 89(1):257-284.

Waters, Mary C., Van C. Tran, Philip Kasinitz and John H. Mollenkopf. 2010. “Segmented Assimilation Revisited: Types of Acculturation and Socioeconomic Outcomes in Young Adulthood.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 33(7):1168-1193.

Intergroup Relations and Racial Attitudes

The second strand of my research examines racial attitudes and intergroup relations. I approach this work with a focus on Asian American perspectives on affirmative action policy in higher education and in the workplace—a major gap in the literature on public opinion research which has disproportionately focused on differences between Blacks and Whites. Beyond affirmative action, my research has examined attitudes toward and support for immigration policy. In a forthcoming paper (with Abascal and Huang), we estimate the causal effects of factual information on attitudes toward immigration and address the effectiveness of intervening in anti-immigrant sentiments.

Abascal, Maria, Tiffany J. Huang and Van C. Tran. 2021. “Intervening in Anti-Immigrant Sentiments: The Causal Effects of Factual Information on Attitudes toward Immigration.” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science: forthcoming.

Tran, Van C. and Natasha K. Warikoo. 2021. “Asian American Perspectives on Immigration Policy.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 7(2):154-177.

Lee, Jennifer and Van C. Tran. 2020. “The Mere Mention of Asians in Affirmative Action.” Sociological Science doi.org/10.15195/v6.a21.

Tran, Van C. and Francisco Lara-García. 2020. A New Beginning: Integration of Recent Refugees in the Early Years of Arrival to the United States.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 6(3): 117-149.

Tran, Van C. 2020. “The Borders Around Us: Forced Migration and the Politics of Border Control.” City & Community 19(2): 323-329.

Tran, Van C. 2019. “Coming of Age in Multi-Ethnic America: Young Adults’ Experiences with Diversity.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 42(1):35-52.

Hopkins, Daniel J., Van C. Tran and Abigail F. Williamson. 2014. “See No Spanish: Language, Local Context, and Attitudes toward Immigration.” Politics, Groups, and Identities 2(1):35-51.

Asian American Diversity and Growth

According to the 2020 U.S. Decennial Census, 24 million respondents identified as Asian alone or as Asian in combination with another racial category. Altogether, individuals of Asian origins accounted for 7 percent of total U.S. population. U.S. Asians are internally diverse, hailing from over 20 countries with distinctive languages and cultural traditions. U.S. Asians are the country’s most rapidly growing racial group, projected to surpass 46 million in 2060. The third strand of my research examines diversity and growth among Asian Americans, focusing on their recent demographic trends, second-generation educational attainment, their transition from education into the workplace, and the rise in anti-Asian hate and violence during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tran, Van C. and Natasha K. Warikoo. 2021. “Asian American Perspectives on Immigration Policy.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 7(2):154-177.

Lee, Jennifer and Van C. Tran. 2020. “The Mere Mention of Asians in Affirmative Action.” Sociological Science doi.org/10.15195/v6.a21.

Tran, Van C., Fei Guo and Tiffany Huang. 2020. “The Integration Paradox: Asian Immigrants in Australia and in the United States.” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 690(1): 36-60.

Tran, Van C., Jennifer Lee and Tiffany Huang. 2019. “Revisiting the Asian Second-Generation Advantage.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 42(13): 2248-2269.

Tran, Van C., Jennifer Lee, Oshin Khachikian and Jess Lee. “Hyper-Selectivity, Racial Mobility, and the Remaking of Race.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 4(5):189-209.

Neighborhood Integration and Urban Change

A fourth strand of my work examines patterns of spatial assimilation and neighborhood integration. I have three main projects in this line of research. In the first project, we examine trends in the suburbanization of immigration, with an emphasis on the transformation of spatial concentration of ethnoracial groups and on the formation of ethnoburbs in the New York metropolitan area from 2000 to 2019. In the second, we examine the growth of superdiversity in New York metropolitan area and developed a visualizing tool in collaboration with Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity’s Superdiversity Project. The third project—Amsterdam Avenue: Neighborhood Upscaling in Manhattan’s West Side—examines the process of neighborhood upscaling and its impacts on the social lives of residents and businesses along Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan’s West Side in the aftermath of the Great Recession.

Kasinitz, Philip, Van C. Tran, and Kasey Zapatka. 2021. “Superdiversity in Metropolitan New York: Ethnoracial Transformations in the Quintessential Immigrant City.” Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity’s Superdiversity Project. https://superdiv-newyork.mmg.mpg.de

Tran, Van C. 2020. “Second-Generation Contextual Mobility: Neighborhood Attainment from Birth to Young Adulthood in the United States.” International Migration Review 54(2): 356-387.

Tran, Van C. and Mengying Li. 2017. “New York City’s Ethnic Neighborhoods.” In America’s Changing Neighborhoods: An Exploration of Diversity through Places, Reed Ueda, Ed. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.

Tran, Van C., Corina Graif, Alison D. Jones, Mario L. Small, and Christopher Winship. “Participation in Context: Neighborhood Diversity and Organizational Involvement in Boston.” City & Community 12(3):187-210.

Tran, Van C. 2015. “More than Just Black: Cultural Perils and Opportunities in Inner-City Neighborhoods.” Pp. 252-280 in The Cultural Matrix: Understanding Black Youth, Orlando Patterson, Eds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.