Eurasian (mixed ancestry)

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Eurasian (Euroasian)
Total population

Unknown
Regions with significant populations
United States:
868,395 (2000)[1]
  defined as those of "White" and "Asian" ancestry
Netherlands:
458,000[2]
Mostly Dutch with Indonesian
United Kingdom:
204,600[3]
Mostly British with Chinese, British With Thai, British with South Asian/Burmese
Australia:
171,500[4]
Mostly Anglo-Burmese,British with Chinese, Filipinos with European,Thai with British
Languages
European languages, Asian languages
Religions
Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and other religions

Eurasian is a general term for people and ethnic groups of mixed European and Asian ancestry, regardless of continent of origin.[5][6][7][8][9]

In this general sense of the term, Eurasians do not constitute a well-defined ethnic group, but rather a large collection of ethnic groups with vastly different cultures, histories, genetic profiles, religions, etc.. Therefore, there is little justification to treat European-Asian people as a whole separately from European-African, European-Amerind, and other mixed-ancestry categories. Furthermore, many individuals and communities of mixed European-Asian descent do not think of themselves as 'ethnic Eurasian', and do not see their mixed ancestry as being relevant to their ethnic or national identity.

In some countries and epochs, however, the term 'Eurasian' may refer to specific ethnic groups. The word was originally coined during 19th century British India to refer to persons born of European fathers, primarily British, and South Asian mothers, primarily Indians.[citation needed]

In some of the countries where "Eurasian" had a specific meaning, it eventually became a derogatory term. In India, in particular, is has now been replaced by the politically correct "Anglo-Indian".

Contents

[edit] Overview

[edit] Origins

Many Eurasian ethnic groups arose during colonial occupation of Asian regions by European states and private corporations, that started with the great wave of European naval expansion and exploration in the 16th century and continues to the present. The main European colonial powers were Spain and Portugal in the 16th century, followed by the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and France from the 17th century onwards.

In many regions, Eurasians tended to marry and socialize mostly among themselves — thus forming a separate social and economic class, which eventually became a distinctive ethnic group.[citation needed]

[edit] Social and economic status

With their close ties to both the ruling Europeans and the local populations, Eurasians had a natural vocation to act as intermediaries — clerks, administrators, police officers, and the like — between the two classes; a position that sometimes gave them power and prosperity.

As European colonies gained their independence, different Eurasian groups met with different fortunes. Often they were discriminated and persecuted, being seen as alien and allied of the former rulers; this was the fate, for example, of the Anglo-Burmese in Burma, and of the Indo (Dutch-Malay) people of Indonesia. In other cases, where the Eurasians had citizen status in the colonial power, they chose to emigrate simply for economic reasons. In a few cases, the Eurasians able to retain their status after the transition, or even to take over the status the former colonial rulers — as in the Philippines, for example, where the Mestizos are politically dominant to this day.

[edit] Numbers

As seen with the given statistics on the ethnic group template, there are more Eurasians living in the Malay Archipelago as a region, more than any other region in the world.[citation needed] Perth, Western Australia has the largest community of Anglo-Burmese than in any other city in the world.

Today, many relatively small Eurasian communities exist in Singapore, Malaysia, Macau, and in Hong Kong.

[edit] Specific groups

[edit] Philippines

The Eurasians of the Philippines form a very tightly knit relationship with Amerasians and due to their cultural similarities and common Western worldview. Both are considered as overrepresented in the entertainment industry, and are widely held in high esteem due to a generalized colonial mindset among Filipinos. Eurasians are viewed positively in the Philippines, and those with European phenotypes in particular are widely promoted as the standard of beauty. Most of the European introgression among Eurasians in the Philippines are of Spanish origin, while some, to a lesser degree, are of British origin. Meanwhile, contemporary migration and intermarriages between Filipinos (both male and female) with expatriates from Europe, Australia and the United States continue to result in an increasing number of Eurasians, particularly part white American, white Australian, British, French, German, Italian, Austrian, Swiss, Dutch, Greek, Portuguese, Slavic and Scandinavian, among others, in addition to the more common Spanish. The Philippines has the most number of Eurasians in the world although the exact percentage of Filipinos with european ancestry is unknown since there are no credible sources for the percentage of Filipinos that are half European and at least with any European ancestry residing in the Philippines. It is estimated that around 4% of the population is Eurasian although it is probable that counting at least part-European ancestry majority of which is Spanish going back many generations, the percentage is much higher. According to a census during the 1800's at least 30% of the population are of Spanish ancestry.

[edit] United States

According to the United States Census Bureau, concerning multi-racial families in 1990:

In the United States, census data indicate that the number of children in interracial families grew from less than one half million in 1970 to about two million in 1990. In 1990, for interracial families with one white American partner, the other parent...was Asian American for 45 percent...[10]

According to James P. Allen and Eugene Turner from California State University, Northridge, by some calculations the largest part white bi-racial population is white/American Indian and Alaskan Native, at 7,015,017, followed by white/black at 737,492, then white/Asian at 727,197, and finally white/Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander at 125,628.[11]

[edit] US Census

The US Census categorizes Eurasian responses in the "Some other race" section as part of the Asian race.[12] The Eurasian responses the US Census officially recognizes are Indo-European, Amerasian, and Eurasian.[12]

[edit] Netherlands

After World War II, most Eurasians of European and Indonesian descent settled (after the overthrow of Dutch colonial rule) in The Netherlands and thereafter in America and elsewhere. Dutch Eurasians were typically Dutch citizens and were seen as having collaborated with the Dutch government by many Indonesians, whereas the Indonesian revolutionary leaders were seen as having collaborated with the Japanese invaders by many Dutch. Both of those perceptions were largely correct. These Dutch Eurasians, also called Indos or Indo-Europeans, have largely assimilated in the Netherlands and, with over 500,000 persons, are the largest ethnic minority in the Netherlands.

[edit] Languages

Eurasians will usually speak the native language of their home country, and may or may not speak the language(s) of an ancestral or parental ethnicity.

The overwhelming majority of all Eurasians with Filipino ancestry of the younger generations speak English as their first language, and have a basic command of at least one Philippine language. Many also speak Lan-nang (Philippine Hokkien), if they also have Chinese ancestry, as well as other European languages like Spanish, German, or French.

The Kristang and Macanese groups have also formed their own languages. The Kristang language is a dialect of Portuguese influenced by Malay as well as Petjo, a dialect compromised of Dutch words based on a Malay grammatical structure.

[edit] Culture

Eurasian culture is mostly tied-up with their ethnic affiliation.

In East Asian countries such as China, South Korea, and Japan, most Eurasians choose to identify with the culture of the country they live in.

Eurasians in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Laos, and Thailand have developed a separate culture from the rest of the indigenous populations in their respective countries, as they typically are regarded by both the foreign and indigenous communities in their respective countries as a separate entity. Many Eurasians with Chinese ancestry in Singapore nevertheless do share the same culture with their Chinese Singaporean counterparts.

In Den Haag (The Hague), Netherlands, an annual Eurasian festival is organized under the name Pasar Malam Besar.

[edit] Identification in the Modern West

Eurasians in Asia sometimes encounter discrimination because historically some of their female forebears were impregnated by Europeans with the woman may have been raped or engaged in prostitution (the father often having been a soldier). Thus, the children are viewed as illegitimate which is regarded as shameful in Asian societies. While this is not usually the case for Eurasians in the West, issues may also arise there, such as issues around cultural loyalties, values, and perceived racial ambiguity (the latter is especially true in the U.S. because of the rule of hypodescent).

[edit] Identification by others

Eurasians' ethnic self-identification may differ from that perceived by others. Strangers will often base their perception on the degree to which the Eurasian looks Asian or European. Those familiar with the Eurasian individual may perceive other cultural and social factors. In regions where Eurasians have historically been the result of fraternization with U.S. servicemen, Eurasians have often been discriminated against. Eurasians in Vietnam, such as Henry Phan, claim that many Asians consider Eurasians to have been born from prostitutes which is considered negative. Some Eurasians like Asha Gill (Indian/White) claim that "Asians despise us because we get all the jobs" and media portrayals.

Criteria for defining ethnicity, race or nationality vary from one society to another. More than one of these criteria may apply to a Eurasian, causing confusion.

[edit] Terminology

 This section does not cite any references or sources. (April 2008)
Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

There are many other terms that apply to Eurasians.

  • Amerasian (America + Asian) connotes the children of U.S. servicemen with Asian women
  • Anglo-Indian refers to people of British and Indian descent
  • Anglo-Burmese - is the Burmese language notion that is an interracial mixture of Westerner and Asian, in this case, people from Burma (also known as Myanmar)
  • Burgher People of mixed Sri Lankan and Portuguese or Dutch descent
  • Hapa haole, or simply hapa, meaning half-foreigner or simply half-something
  • Bụi đời, is the Vietnamese term for street kids, but often mistaken to mean the children of U.S. servicemen and Vietnamese women and literally means "dust of life"
  • Colored, a somewhat derogatory term for mixed race, some governments consider Eurasians as non-Caucasians and therefore "colored"
  • Con lai, is Vietnamese for "half-breed" or "mixed race"
  • Luk kreung is Thai, derived from luk- child, offspring: son or daughter; smaller sub-part and khreung- half, midway; mid; ½
  • Indo is a term for European-Indonesian
  • Filipino mestizo, in modern Philippine usage, it applies to those of part-foreign ancestry, often Spanish
  • Tisoy (male) or Tisay (female) from mestizo or mestiza, in colloquial Filipino, refers to Filipinos of full or part-White descent, though in recent times has begun to refer to indigenous Filipinos of semi-Caucasian features; the word is actually used as a term of endearment with generally positive connotations. Compare to the related colloquial form Pinoy or Pinay
  • Tornatrás is an archaic term used during the Spanish colonial period which once referred to people of mixed Spanish and Chinese descent, as well as those of mixed Spanish, Chinese, and Filipino descent

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-reg=DEC_2000_SF2_U_PCT001:001|107&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF2_U&-_lang=en&-redoLog=true&-mt_name=DEC_2000_SF2_U_PCT001&-format=&-CONTEXT=dt
  2. ^ Evert van Imhoff and Gijs Beets (May 2004). "A demographic history of the Indo-Dutch population, ", Journal of Population Research 21 (1).
  3. ^ http://www.statistics.gov.uk/articles/nojournal/Mixed_ethnic_groups_pdf.pdf Who are the ‘Mixed’ ethnic group? National Statistics.
  4. ^ Charles Price.The Asian Element in Australia: 1996. Monash University.
  5. ^ Eurasian Nation. About Us. 2006. September 7, 2006.<http://www.eurasiannation.com/aboutus.htm>.
  6. ^ Eurasian Community. 2002. September 7, 2006. <http://www.geocities.com/eurasiancommunity/>.
  7. ^ mixedasians.com terms <http://www.mixedasians.com/terms.php>
  8. ^ asiansofmixedrace.com definitions<http://www.asiansofmixedrace.com/def.htm#Eurasian>
  9. ^ Everything Eurasian FAQ <http://www.everythingeurasian.com/faq.html#what>
  10. ^ U.S. Census Bureau, 2000
  11. ^ http://www.csupomona.edu/~mreibel/2000_Census_Files/Allen-Turner.doc
  12. ^ a b University of Michigan. Census 1990: Ancestry Codes. August 27, 2007.[1]

[edit] See also

[edit] External links