My research
My research explores the emergence of social boundaries around immigrants and racial minorities across the world as well as how these boundaries contribute to the reproduction of ethnic-based social inequality. I investigate how political factors shape the experiences of immigrants in the U.S. I also conduct research to test whether theories of racial inequality and immigrant adaptation devised by U.S. scholars have explanatory power in other social contexts. More specifically, I have examined how ethnoracial traits like skin color and national origin shape the experiences of minorities in Europe and Latin America. Methodologically, I draw on a variety of statistical approaches to the analysis of administrative and survey data as well as on computational text analysis.

My work focuses on four research areas:
1. Socio-Political Factors that Shape Immigrants’ Experiences
2. Race and Ethnicity in Latin America
3. Racial Boundaries in the U.S.
4. Immigration in Europe
2. Race and ethnicity in latin america
Nation-building ideologies in Latin America have generally downplayed the significance and even existence of racial boundaries within the population. In a series of articles, my colleagues and I assess whether race and ethnicity are important factors that shape the lives of contemporary Latin Americans. I focus on two main indicators, identity and social stratification, to understand how racial and ethnic boundaries function in Latin America.
Publications:
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3. Immigration in EUrope
Contemporary critics have increasingly questioned the relevance of the concept of “race” around the world. Such critical voices are especially sharp in European countries like France and Germany, where the concept of “race” is generally regarded as “anathema to official thinking.” Instead, the general consensus in European scholarship is that, though racial animosity may have been prevalent once, racism is not as widespread in continental Europe as in the U.S., and that cultural differences, especially Muslim religion, are the main drivers of anti-immigrant sentiment. In contrast, in the U.S., race is commonly considered the dominant social cleavage, a theoretical bent that can be traced to the early work of the Chicago School of Sociology. In this line of research, I adjudicate between these competing theoretical expectations. I analyze immigrants’ discrimination reports as captured by large-scale nationally-representative surveys to assess the emergence of symbolic boundaries around immigrants on the basis of their race, nationality, and religion.
Publications:
• Flores, René D. 2015. "The Resurgence of Race in Spain: Perceptions of Discrimination Among Immigrants in Spain.” Social Forces. 94: 237-269.
- Aristide Zolberg Student Scholar Award, ASA International Migration Section, 2013.
• Flores, René D. "Sticky Boundaries: Do Immigrants in Europe Feel Discriminated Against due to their Religion or Race?” Under review.
• Flores, René D. 2015. "The Resurgence of Race in Spain: Perceptions of Discrimination Among Immigrants in Spain.” Social Forces. 94: 237-269.
- Aristide Zolberg Student Scholar Award, ASA International Migration Section, 2013.
• Flores, René D. "Sticky Boundaries: Do Immigrants in Europe Feel Discriminated Against due to their Religion or Race?” Under review.
4. RACIAL BOUNDARIES IN THE U.S.
Working with actors in a photo shoot for an experimental study on attitudes towards interracial relationships. Ann Arbor, MI 2015.
Publications:
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Uncovering the effect of interpersonal relationships on individual outcomes is a central theme in sociology. Sociological studies have documented how our social ties affect our wealth (Lin 1999), our propensity to commit crimes (Papachristos, Hureau, and Braga 2013), our educational attainment (Rendón 2014), and our body weight (Christakis and Fowler 2007). I contribute to this line of research by examining the effect of a specific type of close social ties, romantic peers, on women’s perceived attributes.
More specifically, I use both focus groups and survey experiments to understand how the race of women’s romantic partners shapes their perceived class status, cultural values, sexual customs, and even their race in the eyes of others. Though recent survey evidence suggests that the racial boundary between blacks and whites in the U.S. has weakened, I find that it remains rigid enough that it is socially consequential for the women who cross it. |