The Kids Are (Mostly) Alright: Second-Generation Assimilation: Comments on Haller, Portes and Lynch

The overall well-being and integration of second-generation immigrant youth constitute an important topic for researchers and policy makers, one that has generated a great deal of empirical research. While the article by Haller, Portes and Lynch organizes that research into two competing camps–segmented assimilation vs. other theories of assimilation–we think that these theories are better seen as complementary rather than antagonistic. We also believe that empirical findings on the second generation from various studies are not far apart, but in our view they do not show that "downward" assimilation is as widespread as Portes and his colleagues assert.

Researchers using different theoretical lenses reach quite similar conclusions about today's children of immigrants. In general, the second generation is doing much better than its parents in educational attainment and is less concentrated in immigrant jobs (Kasinitz et al. 2008; Park and Myers 2010; Smith 2003; Telles and Ortiz 2008). The overwhelming majority of the second generation is completely fluent in English and integrated in many ways in American society (Portes and Rumbaut 2001; Bean and Stevens 2003). Yet most of its members have not reached parity with native whites, and many experience racial discrimination. A minority of the second generation does not make a successful transition to adulthood, dropping out of high school and/or failing to find employment, and some members of the second generation become involved in criminal activity including gangs and drugs (Rumbaut 2005). This was also, we must point out, the experience of an earlier second generation of European origins, during the first half of the 20^th century (Foner 2000).

Where Our Perspectives Are Complementary

We believe that segmented-assimilation and mainstream-assimilation theories are complementary in that both approaches have overlapping explanations for the varying levels of success of the second generation, but contribute insights that are distinct. We have argued that the second generation should be seen as generally successful in its integration into American society, but we also have been very clear that some individuals experience lateral, and sometimes downward, mobility, and that this is more prevalent in some groups than others. The context of reception facing different national origin groups most definitely influences outcomes for the second generation, which vary among individuals and among groups. In part, the seeming disagreements reflect matters of emphasis, rather than different empirical findings. Inheriting the City stresses the overall mobility of the second generation, compared to its parents and to native groups of the same racial/ethnic background. Yet Kasinitz et al. (2008) conclude that there is much cause for concern about the future trajectory of Dominican second-generation men, and they find much downward mobility among Puerto Ricans (Kasinitz et al. 2008). Portes and associates, while stressing the dangers of downward assimilation and finding that most of the second generation do not do as well as native whites, nevertheless have done much to document and explain the success of the second generation, which has overcome difficult odds at times (Fernández-Kelly 2008; Portes and Fernández-Kelly 2008; Portes and Rumbaut 2001; Rumbaut 2008; Smith 2008).

The mechanisms explaining outcomes are also quite similar across the different theoretical perspectives. The Haller, Portes and Lynch article identifies three important factors influencing outcomes among the second generation–parents' socio-economic status, modes of incorporation among different groups and family structure. These three factors are also the main ones identified in the New York Second Generation Study (Waters et al. 2010). To these three, Kasinitz et al. (2008) added cultural creativity–the ability to combine norms and scripts from parents as well as American society. They point to the advantage the second generation has over natives in being able to draw from multiple frames of reference and cultural traditions to fashion strategies to deal with issues that confront young adults. While segmented-assimilation theory also notes that young people can gain strength from their parents' strong ethnic communities, the New York Second Generation Study specified a path by which a specific ethnic heritage and integration into American...