Transitory versus Durable Boundary Crossing: What Explains the Indigenous Population Boom in Mexico?

Ethnic boundary crossing takes two different forms that have distinct triggers, traits, and potential outcomes: transitory crossing, which is typically short-term, reversible, and triggered by microcontextual cues, and durable crossing, which is a longer-lasting, gradual process motivated by macropolitical forces such as social movements and government policies. This theoretical distinction helps explain the unexpected growth in the long stigmatized self-identified indigenous population in Mexico, which has tripled since 2000. Using a demographic projection model, the authors find that natural demographic processes contributed little to this sudden growth. Instead, using experimental and census data, they find that transitory crossing into the indigenous category was activated by phrasing changes to the 2010 census identification question. The authors theorize that durable crossing is being simultaneously activated by the growing salience of the indigenous movement and the Mexican government’s embrace of multiculturalism. These political factors appear to be shaping the social meaning of indigeneity itself.