Dan Rodríguez-García
Dan Rodríguez-García is 'Serra Húnter' Full Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), Spain. He has held the positions of Academic Coordinator/Deputy Chair; Director of the PhD Program and of the MA Program in Anthropology: Advanced Research and Social Intervention; Director of the European Master in Social and Cultural Anthropology (CREOLE); and Coordinator of the International Mobility Program.
He obtained his PhD (summa cum laude) in 2002 at UAB. Previously he had obtained a 3-year Diploma in History (UAB, 1992); a BA in Social and Cultural Anthropology (UAB, 1994, First Class Honours); an MS in Demography (Centre for Demographic Studies, Barcelona, 1997); an MA in Basic and Applied Research in Social and Cultural Anthropology (UAB, 1997); and an MA in Culture, Race, and Difference (University of Sussex, 1998).
He has 28 years of experience teaching at the university level, notably teaching graduate and postgraduate courses on Epistemology and Methodology in the Social Sciences and International Migration and Interethnic Relations. He has supervised numerous doctoral and MA theses and has sat on 100+ Evaluation Committees. He has held research fellowships at the University of Sussex (1997-98), and at the University of Toronto (2004-05). And he has been a Visiting Professor or Visiting Scholar at the University of Toronto (Canada), the Université Paris-Sorbonne (France), the Institut National d’Études Démographiques-INED (France), the University of Vienna (Austria), Malmö University (Sweden), and Eötvös Loránd University (Hungary).
He is the founder and Director of the INMIX-Research Group on Immigration, Mixedness, and Social Cohesion, officially recognized as a Consolidated Research Group (2021SGR-00181) by the Catalan Government’s Agency for Management of University and Research Grants (AGAUR), a competitive recognition that aims to support top-notch research groups in all fields of knowledge. He is also a member of the Standing Committee RACED (Race, Racism and Discrimination) of the IMISCOE - International Migration Research Network, and an Affiliated Research Member of CERIS–The Ontario Metropolis Centre. As an expert on immigration and diversity, he is often consulted by the media and regularly participates in knowledge transfer for government bodies and civic associations.
His main areas of research are international migration, interethnic relations, and the social integration processes of immigrants and their descendants. In 1996, he launched a pioneering line of research in Spain on ‘mixedness’ (mixed unions, multiethnicity, and multiraciality), as a crucial lens through which to assess the persistence of prejudices and stereotypes between groups, processes of inclusion and exclusion, racism, and social discrimination. For his innovative work in this field, he has received several research awards.
He has directed 9 competitive funded research projects and participated as a senior researcher in another 8. His most recent research project as a PI is “Dynamics of Mixedness among Roma Populations in Catalonia, Spain: Interethnic Relations, Acculturation and Processes of social Inclusion and Exclusion (GITMIX)", funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science & Innovation, National Program "Challenges of Society".
He has authored or (guest-)edited 100+ publications in his field, including the book Managing Immigration and Diversity in Canada: A Transatlantic Dialogue in the New Age of Migration (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2012); Special issues guest-edited for the ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (“Intermarriage and Integration Revisited”, 2015), Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (“Re-constructing ways of belonging”, 2021), or Migraciones (“Theorising Race, Racialisation and Racism in Spain”, 2025); and peer-reviewed journal articles such as “Mixed marriages and Transnational Families” (JEMS, 2006), “Beyond Assimilation and Multiculturalism” (Journal of International Migration and Integration, 2010), “Preference and Prejudice” (Ethnicities, 2016); “Blurring of Colour Lines?” (JEMS, 2021), “The Persistence of Racial Constructs in Spain” (Social Sciences, 2022), or "Rethinking mixed heritage in an era of superdiversity" (Ethnic and Racial Studies, 2026).
Professor Rodríguez-García has also given 100+ presentations at scientific conferences, and organized several workshops and symposiums, such as the “Forum Managing Immigration and Diversity in Quebec and Canada” (2008), the IMISCOE Research Panel “Visibilizing Roma in the Debate on Race and Racialization in Europe” (2024), or the knowledge-transfer conference ‘Catalunya Barreja’: Diversity, Mixedness, and Social Cohesion (2025). Recent invited lectures include “Race, Racialization and the Persistence of Ethnoracial Divisions in Spain” (University of Washington, 2024), and Racial constructs and boundaries in Spain” (University of Hawai‘i, 2025).
Address: Departament d'Antropologia Social i Cultural
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB)
Facultat de Filosofia i Lletres
Edifici B - Carrer de la Fortuna s/n
08193 Bellaterra (Barcelona)
Spain
Websites:
https://webs.uab.cat/dan/eng/
http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Dan_Rodriguez-Garcia
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1117-292X
http://uab.academia.edu/DanRodriguezGarcia
Twitter: @danrodriguezgar
He obtained his PhD (summa cum laude) in 2002 at UAB. Previously he had obtained a 3-year Diploma in History (UAB, 1992); a BA in Social and Cultural Anthropology (UAB, 1994, First Class Honours); an MS in Demography (Centre for Demographic Studies, Barcelona, 1997); an MA in Basic and Applied Research in Social and Cultural Anthropology (UAB, 1997); and an MA in Culture, Race, and Difference (University of Sussex, 1998).
He has 28 years of experience teaching at the university level, notably teaching graduate and postgraduate courses on Epistemology and Methodology in the Social Sciences and International Migration and Interethnic Relations. He has supervised numerous doctoral and MA theses and has sat on 100+ Evaluation Committees. He has held research fellowships at the University of Sussex (1997-98), and at the University of Toronto (2004-05). And he has been a Visiting Professor or Visiting Scholar at the University of Toronto (Canada), the Université Paris-Sorbonne (France), the Institut National d’Études Démographiques-INED (France), the University of Vienna (Austria), Malmö University (Sweden), and Eötvös Loránd University (Hungary).
He is the founder and Director of the INMIX-Research Group on Immigration, Mixedness, and Social Cohesion, officially recognized as a Consolidated Research Group (2021SGR-00181) by the Catalan Government’s Agency for Management of University and Research Grants (AGAUR), a competitive recognition that aims to support top-notch research groups in all fields of knowledge. He is also a member of the Standing Committee RACED (Race, Racism and Discrimination) of the IMISCOE - International Migration Research Network, and an Affiliated Research Member of CERIS–The Ontario Metropolis Centre. As an expert on immigration and diversity, he is often consulted by the media and regularly participates in knowledge transfer for government bodies and civic associations.
His main areas of research are international migration, interethnic relations, and the social integration processes of immigrants and their descendants. In 1996, he launched a pioneering line of research in Spain on ‘mixedness’ (mixed unions, multiethnicity, and multiraciality), as a crucial lens through which to assess the persistence of prejudices and stereotypes between groups, processes of inclusion and exclusion, racism, and social discrimination. For his innovative work in this field, he has received several research awards.
He has directed 9 competitive funded research projects and participated as a senior researcher in another 8. His most recent research project as a PI is “Dynamics of Mixedness among Roma Populations in Catalonia, Spain: Interethnic Relations, Acculturation and Processes of social Inclusion and Exclusion (GITMIX)", funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science & Innovation, National Program "Challenges of Society".
He has authored or (guest-)edited 100+ publications in his field, including the book Managing Immigration and Diversity in Canada: A Transatlantic Dialogue in the New Age of Migration (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2012); Special issues guest-edited for the ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (“Intermarriage and Integration Revisited”, 2015), Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (“Re-constructing ways of belonging”, 2021), or Migraciones (“Theorising Race, Racialisation and Racism in Spain”, 2025); and peer-reviewed journal articles such as “Mixed marriages and Transnational Families” (JEMS, 2006), “Beyond Assimilation and Multiculturalism” (Journal of International Migration and Integration, 2010), “Preference and Prejudice” (Ethnicities, 2016); “Blurring of Colour Lines?” (JEMS, 2021), “The Persistence of Racial Constructs in Spain” (Social Sciences, 2022), or "Rethinking mixed heritage in an era of superdiversity" (Ethnic and Racial Studies, 2026).
Professor Rodríguez-García has also given 100+ presentations at scientific conferences, and organized several workshops and symposiums, such as the “Forum Managing Immigration and Diversity in Quebec and Canada” (2008), the IMISCOE Research Panel “Visibilizing Roma in the Debate on Race and Racialization in Europe” (2024), or the knowledge-transfer conference ‘Catalunya Barreja’: Diversity, Mixedness, and Social Cohesion (2025). Recent invited lectures include “Race, Racialization and the Persistence of Ethnoracial Divisions in Spain” (University of Washington, 2024), and Racial constructs and boundaries in Spain” (University of Hawai‘i, 2025).
Address: Departament d'Antropologia Social i Cultural
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB)
Facultat de Filosofia i Lletres
Edifici B - Carrer de la Fortuna s/n
08193 Bellaterra (Barcelona)
Spain
Websites:
https://webs.uab.cat/dan/eng/
http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Dan_Rodriguez-Garcia
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1117-292X
http://uab.academia.edu/DanRodriguezGarcia
Twitter: @danrodriguezgar
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Books by Dan Rodríguez-García
Keywords:
Intermarriage, endogamy/exogamy, interethnic/interracial marriage, mixed unions, mixedness, multiraciality/multiethnicity
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CITATION:
Rodríguez-García, Dan (2022) “The Persistence of Racial Constructs in Spain. Bringing Race and Colorblindness into the Debate on Interculturalism.” Social Sciences, 11(1):13. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci11010013
Rodríguez-García, D. (2021) “Forbidden Love: Controlling Partnerships Across Ethnoracial Boundaries.” In International Handbook of Love: Transcultural and Transdisciplinary Perspectives, edited by Claude-Hélène Mayer and Elisabeth Vanderheiden. Switzerland: Springer, Chapter 48, pp. 923-942. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45996-3. ISBN 978-3-030-45995-6.
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ABSTRACT:
The freedom to love is something most of us take for granted. The reality is that partnerships across racial, cultural or religious lines have historically been problematized around the world. Laws prohibiting mixed unions were present in countless nations until very recently. This preoccupation with intermarriage is why it has been a leitmotiv in literature over the centuries and later on in cinema, from Shakespeare’s Othello and Romeo and Juliet, to Stanley Kramer’s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. This chapter will provide a historical and anthropological analysis of state control over partnership formation, offering a number of cases around the world where nations have implemented anti-mixing laws. In these contexts, miscegenation (the mixing of people through marriage who were considered to be of different racial groups) was abhorred and treated as a deviance, as devoid of love, and, above all, as a threat to national integrity and the status quo. This exploration can help us to better understand the social, cultural, and political contexts in which restrictive views of coupling, family, and love have emerged, and to critically reflect on continued prejudices towards mixed unions that still exist in current times.
Rodríguez-García, D., Miguel Luken, V. de, Solana-Solana, M. (2021) “Mixed unions and their descendants in Spain: Demographic overview and theoretical considerations on the processes of mixedness.” In Joaquín Arango, Ramón Mahía, David Moya & Elena Sánchez-Montijano (dirs.) Anuario CIDOB de la Inmigración 2020, Barcelona: CIDOB.
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ABSTRACT:
This chapter offers a state of the art on mixed unions and their descendants in Spain, or what we have been generically calling ‘mixedness’. We first provide a demographic overview, mainly descriptive, on the evolution and main demographic patterns (evolution over time, typology and geographical distribution) both in relation to mixed unions and births from mixed unions. Second, we delve into the deep meanings of this reality based on first-hand ethnographic information, which allows us to raise some considerations about the meaning and social consequences mixedness and its relationship to dynamics of social inclusion and exclusion.
The Anuario CIDOB de la Inmigración is a publication edited by CIDOB since 2007 that combines analysis with evaluation. From a multi- and interdisciplinary perspective, it analyses migration and migration policy characteristics and trends in Spain within European and international contexts. Published annually, it is particularly aimed at the academic community, the actors involved in managing migration – the political community, NGOs, associations, unions, etc. – and the media, but it also seeks to arouse the interest of the general public seeking to understand the state and evolution of the migration phenomenon.
Rodríguez-García, D., de Miguel Luken, V., Solana, M., Ballestín, B. (2021) “Generation 2.5. An analysis on the social integration of the children of mixed unions in Spain based on the data of the ILSEG Survey”. In Alejandro Portes and Rosa Aparicio (eds.), Los nuevos españoles: la incorporación de los hijos de inmigrantes. Barcelona: Ed. Bellaterra.
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ABSTRACT:
The purpose of this chapter is to shed some light on a population group hardly studied in Spain so far: the descendants of mixed or bi-national unions. This is the first exploitation of data for this particular population subgroup in Spain from a survey with an statistically representative and longitudinal sample, the ILSEG survey data. The chapter offers an overview of several key areas of social integration and mobility of immigrants and their descendants. The thematic areas analyzed are: national identity, religion, discrimination, academic success, job placement, knowledge and use of languages, and social networks. This is an invited chapter to a choral publication based on the exploitation of data from the Longitudinal Survey on the Second Generation (ILSEG), which is the most ambitious research so far for the analysis of the social integration of the second generation of immigrants in Spain (https://iuiog.com/investigacion/proyecto-ilseg/). The book is edited by Prof. Alejandro Portes (Princeton University), and Prof. Rosa Aparicio (Instituto Universitario Ortega y Gasset).
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ABSTRACT:
Spain, and in particular the region of Catalonia, has seen a significant increase in mixed unions between immigrants and natives, which, in turn, has given rise to a growing number of young people with mixed origins. Yet little is known about how these mixed families and individuals negotiate cultural differences and view their “mixed cultural capital.” Drawing on both 29 in-depth interviews with youth of diverse mixed cultural, racial, and religious backgrounds residing in Catalonia and 58 in-depth interviews with immigrants in mixed unions, this paper focuses on the role of language as a form of cultural capital. Do mixed families use a number of languages in their everyday lives? Which languages are transmitted, preferred, and used, and why? We find that mixed families are generally multilingual, as the knowledge of different languages is thought to contribute to communication with relatives, social integration, and social mobility. However, children and youth of mixed descent who belong to stigmatised ethnic or racial groups may resist learning or actively using the language of their immigrant parent to avoid stigmatization and socially imposed categories of “foreignness.” Therefore, stigmatization and prejudice may be limiting linguistic cultural capital in Catalonia, a key benefit of mixedness.
This special issue of The ANNALS investigates the intermarriage / integration nexus. The research within shows the extent to which intermarriage is related to pluralism, cultural diversity, and social inclusion/exclusion in the twenty-first century; we also evaluate the impact that mixed marriages, families, and individuals have on shaping and transforming modern societies. We identify patterns and outcomes of intermarriage in both North America and Europe, detecting boundaries between native majorities and ethnic minorities.
Obviously, intermarriage and mixedness are often deeply entwined with immigration, so we also scrutinize the relationship between intermarriage and various aspects of immigrant integration, whether legal, political, economic, social, or cultural. Does intermarriage, in fact, contribute to immigrant incorporation? How and to what degree? Findings – whether quantitative, qualitative, or both – are presented in this volume for a wide variety of national contexts: Canada, the United States, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, and Sweden.
Specific findings include:
• Race and religion remain significant barriers to societal integration, and deep social cleavages exist even in countries with higher rates of intermarriage. Race is a significant barrier in the United States, and religion – Islam in particular – is a prominent barrier in Western Europe, where even “looking Muslim” is automatically a low-status attribute, making some basic social integration, from housing to employment, automatically more difficult.
• Diversity has never been greater in the United States, but social integration is context-bound and conditional:
- White immigrants have an easier time with various forms of integration (e.g. educational attainment, housing, and labor), but the opposite is true for black immigrants, who are less likely to marry black natives or out-marry with other groups.
- Asian Americans have become the most “marriageable” ethnoracial minority in America. Boundaries to integration in the U.S. for Asians have not disappeared, but the rising multiracial Asian population faces fewer social hurdles. This is particularly true for Asian women, who are seen as more desirable than Asian men, likely because of persistent ethnic stereotypes.
- The earnings gap between immigrants who marry natives and those who marry other immigrants has increased over time in the U.S.
• In the U.S. and France, immigrants with high levels of education are more likely to marry natural born citizens.
• British multiracial people with part white ancestry and their children do not necessarily integrate into the white mainstream.
• EU citizens generally have a strong identification with Europe – they tend to feel “European” and take pride in being so; this is particularly true of those with a partner from a different EU27 country.
• The key to integration can lie in children who are products of mixed unions and the role that these families have in shaping societies where plural identities are normalized. In Quebec, for example, parents in mixed unions tend to make decisions that transmit identity, values, and culture to their children in ways that contribute to the “unique social pluralism” of the Quebecois.
• Immigrants in Canada with Canadian-born partners have similar levels of political engagement as the third-plus generation with Canadian-born partners; however, immigrants with foreign-born partners have lower political participation.
• The regulation of mixed marriages in the Netherlands has historically been gendered, to the detriment of Dutch women.
• The link between intermarriage and immigrant integration in Spain is complex and varied: outcomes for some aspects of integration may show a direct connection, while other results indicate either no relationship or a bidirectional association; further, the outcomes may be moderated by factors such as country of origin, gender, or length of residence.
• The social, cultural, and achievement outcomes for children of mixed marriages in England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden are always in between the outcomes for immigrant children and native children, suggesting that mechanisms of both integration and stigmatization, among other possibilities, play a role.
Together, these studies suggest a more complex picture of the nexus between intermarriage and integration than has traditionally been theorized, composing a portrait of what some scholars are calling “mixedness” – an encompassing concept that refers to intermarriage and mixed families, and the sociocultural processes attendant to them, in the modern world. We find that mixedness can be socially transformative, but also that it illuminates the disheartening persistence of ethnic and cultural divides that hinder inclusion and social cohesion.
This book is designed to assist instructors, researchers, and practitioners working in the areas of either Canadian immigration and diversity or comparative migration studies and is also intended for scholars and policy-makers in new, fast-growing countries or regions of immigration, particularly in Southern Europe. This innovative resource includes the contributions of many of Canada's leading experts on immigration and provides a crucial transatlantic perspective on immigration and integration themes.
Contributors include: Naomi Alboim (Queen’s University), John Biles (Citizenship and Immigration Canada), Monica Boyd (University of Toronto), Elizabeth Coelho (University of Toronto), Zita De Koninck (Université Laval), Louise Fontaine (Ministère de l'Immigration et des Communautés culturelles du Québec), Annick Germain (INRS-Urbanisation Culture Société), Jack Jedwab (Association for Canadian Studies), Peter Li (University of Saskatchewan), Gérard Pinsonneault (Université de Montréal), Yves Poisson (Public Policy Forum), Maryse Potvin (Université du Québec à Montréal), Jeffrey G. Reitz (University of Toronto), Dan Rodríguez-García (Autonomous University of Barcelona), Joanna Anneke Rummens (University of Toronto), and Myer Siemiatycki (Ryerson University).
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Catalunya ha conegut diversos períodes d’intensa migració al llarg de la història. La seva configuració social i econòmica no es pot entendre sense l’aportació d’aquests fluxos humans. Les últimes dues dècades han constituït un nou moment d’intensa arribada de població al país; ara amb unes característiques diferents a moments anteriors, amb la presència de població majorment estrangera. Conèixer les condicions de vida d’aquesta població ens pot ajudar a entendre’n el procés d’assentament i d’inserció a Catalunya i en la societat catalana. L’Enquesta Nacional d’Immigrants (ENI), que va fer en tot l’àmbit estatal l’Institut Nacional d’Estadística l’any 2007, constitueix una font d’informació molt valuosa per a aprofundir en el coneixement de les característiques i les dinàmiques d’aquesta població immigrada. Aquest llibre ofereix una anàlisi d’alguns apartats d’aquesta enquesta per al cas de Catalunya. Se centra en aspectes relacionats amb la llengua, la història migratòria, les geografies familiars, les xarxes socials o la participació social i aporta un seguit de reflexions sobre els processos d’integració d’aquests nouvinguts en la societat catalana. Els investigadors i les investigadores que han dut a terme aquest estudi formen part del Grup de Recerca sobre Migracions (GRM) de la Universi¬tat Autònoma de Barcelona.
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Este libro es el resultado de un proyecto I+D+i financiado por el Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (2006-2009) titulado “Teoría transcultural de la reproducción de los grupos humanos: la antropología del parentesco como estudio de los modelos socioculturales de procreación y crianza de los niños”, y encaminado a la elaboración de modelos teóricos transculturales de procreación y crianza de los niños, construyendo modelos etnográficos procreativos y estableciendo su alcance transcultural. A lo largo de 17 capítulos, se ofrecen avances sobre los aspectos socioculturales imbricados en la reproducción de los grupos humanos y en las diversas formas de entender, organizar y llevar a cabo los procesos de procreación y crianza de los niños en distintos lugares del mundo, abordando temas como: las concepciones respecto a la formación de los seres humanos, la adopción y circulación de niños, las relaciones procreativas interétnicas, translocales y transnacionales, y las intersecciones entre el parentesco y los sistemas de género, los sistemas educativos y los sistemas de salud. Todo ello a partir de trabajos bibliográficos y etnográficos realizados en diversos países/continentes.
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Resumen: Se trata de una investigación realizada en el Reino Unido sobre los procesos de elección del cónyuge y formación de la pareja y familia entre poblaciones de África sub-sahariana. Se realizó investigación documental, estadística, y trabajo de campo etnográfico con población gambiana en 13 barrios del Inner London. Se trataba de: 1) clarificar los factores más relevantes en la formación de la pareja de la población en cuestión (el proyecto migratorio; la movilidad y las redes personales; los sistemas de parentesco en origen y en destino; las actitudes y comportamientos sobre endogamia/exogamia en relación con la historia colonial; la afiliación religiosa al islam, etc.); analizar cuantitativamente y cualitativamente los patrones de endogamia/exogamia (uniones entre personas del mismo/diferente grupo o categoría) y de homogamia/heterogamia (uniones entre individuos de similar/diferente estatus socioeconómico). Se pusieron a prueba varias hipótesis: la principal era que hay un prevalencia de la endogamia étnica, y que cuando hay exogamia, ocurre dentro de un patrón de homogamia o de hipergamia para el cónyuge del grupo minoritario, y con intercambio de status. Se contrastaron también tres hipótesis secundarias relacionadas con tres factores clave: sexo/género (hay más control sobre las mujeres en cuanto a la elección de la pareja, con presión hacia la elección endógama); religión (es un factor crucial en los patrones de endogamia y exogamia, limitando la segunda); y edad/generación (las segundas generaciones son más exógamas que las anteriores). Todas las hipótesis se validaron, con algunos matices.
ABSTRACT: This is a theoretical analysis drawing on a comprehensive documentary study about the explanatory factors of endogamy/exogamy (partnership within/outside a particular group or social category) using a cross-cultural and multidisciplinary perspective, and including an ethnographic exploration and a preliminary test of crucial hypotheses on African immigrant populations in Catalonia.
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Rodríguez García, D. (1997) Aproximación a la endogamia y exogamia étnica: un aspecto fundamental de las relaciones interétnicas. Tesis de Master. Master en Investigación Básica y Aplicada en Antropología Social y Cultural. Deptartamento de Antropologia Social y Cultural, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona
RESUMEN: Se trata de un análisis teórico a partir del estudio documental exhaustivo sobre factores explicativos de la endogamia/exogamia desde una perspectiva transcultural y multidisciplinar; además de una prospección etnográfica para la puesta a prueba preliminar de hipótesis cruciales con población inmigrada de origen africano en Cataluña.
Papers by Dan Rodríguez-García
CITATION:
Rodríguez-García, D. (2026) “The Catalunya Barreja knowledge-transfer conference highlights immigration, diversity and mixedness as constitutive facts of Catalan society.” Revista UAB Divulga: Barcelona Investigación e Innovación. Articles in depth – Demography, May 4, 2026. https://tinyurl.com/58bf8nfd