Children of Immigrants Are Doing OK in the US

Here's good news from the Pew Hispanic Research Center for everyone who is worried about the fact that the Baby Boom generation is not replacing itself demographically--the children of immigrants are doing quite well, thank you very much. The story is from the New York Times:

Americans who were born to immigrant parents, many of them the adult children of an enormous wave of immigrants who began arriving in the 1960s, are doing better than the foreign born on important measures of socioeconomic success, and in at least one area — education — have outperformed the population as a whole.

Given current immigration trends and birthrates, virtually all of the growth in the nation’s working-age population between now and 2050 will be accounted for by immigrants and their children.

The Pew report also offers some insight on the social integration of immigrant families. For example, overwhelmingly, adult children of immigrants Americans speak English, Pew found.

Hispanics and Asian-Americans, who make up about half of that group, place more importance on hard work and career success than the general public, according to the report. And they are also likely to consider themselves a “typical American.”

This is, in fact, the story of America. If there is such a thing as American "exceptionalism" this is it. Immigrants themselves may come in with fewer qualifications than the average native American, but their children build and rebuild the country.