SAN FRANCISCO\u2014Two new studies on U.S. immigrants could help to refute some of the key arguments used by legislators to crack down on immigrants.<\/p>\n
A report by the Center for American Progress finds that immigrants today are integrating into American society at the same rates as previous generations of immigrants. The study examined trends in homeownership, education, English proficiency, naturalization and income among immigrants who arrived in the 1990s.<\/p>\n
They report projects that by\u00a0 the year 2030 the majority of these immigrants will be speaking English well (70.3 percent, up from 57.5 percent in 2000), and that the percentage of those living in poverty will have fallen from 22.8 percent in 2000 to 13.4 percent in 2030.<\/p>\n
\u201cHomeownership is the biggest surprise of all,\u201d said co-author Dowell Myers, a professor at the University of Southern California and director of the Population Dynamics Research Group.<\/p>\n
Only 21 percent of Latino newcomers were homeowners in 2000; yet 67 percent are projected to own homes by the year 2030. Among all immigrants, homeownership is expected to increase from 25 percent to 72 percent. Although immigrants lost ground in the foreclosure crisis\u2014Latinos were especially hard hit\u2014immigrant homeownership rates were still higher in 2010 than they were in 2000, and are projected to continue rising.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe point is that there\u2019s not a huge difference between Latinos and all immigrants,\u201d Myers said.<\/p>\n
Another report released by the Migration Policy Institute finds that second-generation Latinas are now enrolling in college at the same rate as third-generation white women (46 percent), although they are still lagging behind in graduation rates.<\/p>\n
\u201cSecond-generation Hispanics are closing the gap in terms of access to higher education, but there remain large disparities in completing college, largely because of family, work and economic reasons,\u201d said MPI Senior Vice President Michael Fix, who co-authored the report.<\/p>\n
According to Myers, the findings of the latest CAP study contradict what he calls the \u201cPeter Pan fallacy\u201d\u2014the myth among some longtime U.S. residents that immigrants remain frozen in time and are not assimilating into\u00a0 American society.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor lack of information, they are imagining the worst case,\u201d Myers said. \u201cAnd they don\u2019t imagine it by themselves; politicians are helping.\u201d<\/p>\n
Political scientist Samuel Huntington argued in his last book in 2004 that Latinos didn\u2019t assimilate into American society as a result of their sheer numbers and their proximity to their home countries. Latino immigration, he wrote, could \u201cdivide the United States into two peoples, two cultures, and two languages.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fears that Latino population growth constitutes a threat to American society and identity have fueled anti-immigration state laws from Arizona to Alabama. This year, the states with the highest Latino population growth according to the 2010 census \u2013 South Carolina and Alabama \u2013 enacted two of the nation\u2019s harshest immigration laws.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe key confusion seems to be that in a new destination \u2026 local residents can\u2019t imagine how (immigrants) will change over time,\u201d Myers said.<\/p>\n
Approximately sixty percent of immigrants in southern states like South Carolina and Alabama are new, according to another Center for American Progress report released last year. These immigrants, who have lived there for fewer than 10 years, reflect the trend of other newly arrived immigrants: they tend to have lower achievement levels and lower rates of homeownership.<\/p>\n
In Texas and California, by contrast\u2014states where immigrants are long settled\u2014Latinos are much more integrated and have high rates of homeownership.<\/p>\n
Vanessa Cardenas, director of Progress 2050, a project of the Center for American Progress, said the new research could help to paint a more accurate picture of a population that she says has long been \u201cmischaracterized\u201d by public officials.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the immigration\/integration debate, sometimes the facts don\u2019t matter,\u201d said Cardenas. \u201cWe all have a responsibility to continue pushing elected officials to make sure policies are based on facts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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