Access provided by Stanford University []
Browse Book and Journal Content on Project MUSE
OR
Browse > Area and Ethnic Studies > American Studies
title

Achieving Anew

How New Immigrants Do in American Schools, Jobs, and Neighborhoods

Michael J. White, Jennifer E. Glick

Publication Year: 2011

Can the recent influx of immigrants successfully enter the mainstream of American life, or will many of them fail to thrive and become part of a permanent underclass? Achieving Anew examines immigrant life in school, at work, and in communities and demonstrates that recent immigrants and their children do make substantial progress over time, both within and between generations. From policymakers to private citizens, our national conversation on immigration has consistently questioned the country’s ability to absorb increasing numbers of foreign nationals—now nearly one million legal entrants per year. Using census data, longitudinal education surveys, and other data, Michael White and Jennifer Glick place their study of new immigrant achievement within a context of recent developments in assimilation theory and policies regulating who gets in and what happens to them upon arrival. They find that immigrant status itself is not an important predictor of educational achievement. First-generation immigrants arrive in the United States with less education than native-born Americans, but by the second and third generation, the children of immigrants are just as successful in school as native-born students with equivalent social and economic background. As with prior studies, the effects of socioeconomic background and family structure show through strongly. On education attainment, race and ethnicity have a strong impact on achievement initially, but less over time. Looking at the labor force, White and Glick find no evidence to confirm the often-voiced worry that recent immigrants and their children are falling behind earlier arrivals. On the contrary, immigrants of more recent vintage tend to catch up to the occupational status of natives more quickly than in the past. Family background, educational preparation, and race/ethnicity all play a role in labor market success, just as they do for the native born, but the offspring of immigrants suffer no disadvantage due to their immigrant origins. New immigrants continue to live in segregated neighborhoods, though with less prevalence than native black-white segregation. Immigrants who arrived in the 1960s are now much less segregated than recent arrivals. Indeed, the authors find that residential segregation declines both within and across generations. Yet black and Mexican immigrants are more segregated from whites than other groups, showing that race and economic status still remain powerful influences on where immigrants live. Although the picture is mixed and the continuing significance of racial factors remains a concern, Achieving Anew provides compelling reassurance that the recent wave of immigrants is making impressive progress in joining the American mainstream. The process of assimilation is not broken, the advent of a new underclass is not imminent, and the efforts to argue for the restriction of immigration based on these fears are largely mistaken.

Published by: Russell Sage Foundation

Front Matter

pdf iconDownload PDF (34.7 KB)
 

CONTENTS

pdf iconDownload PDF (20.2 KB)
 

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

pdf iconDownload PDF (25.2 KB)
pp. vii-viii

read more

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

pdf iconDownload PDF (24.9 KB)
pp. ix-x

WE OWE a substantial debt of gratitude to several organizations and individuals for help in bringing this effort into print.The Demographic and Behavioral Sciences Branch of the Eunice Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01 HD37054 “Immigration and Early Life Course Transitions”) supported our work with the analysis of High ...

read more

Chapter 1. Introduction

pdf iconDownload PDF (66.4 KB)
pp. 1-7

THE FACES of new arrivals to our shores, ports, and cities reinforce the selfimage of the United States as a country of immigration. At the same time, this newest wave of immigrants brings challenges and opportunities. In the eyes of some observers, it challenges key values of American society. For others, it reinforces those values. For some, it strengthens the economy; for ...

read more

Chapter 2. A Tidal Wave of Immigration? The Scale of the Contemporary Immigration Flow

pdf iconDownload PDF (189.9 KB)
pp. 8-27

THE UNITED States is typically characterized as a nation of immigrants. More than 70 million people were counted as immigrants to the United States between 1820 and 2005 (U.S. Department of Homeland Security 2005). But how large is the current immigration flow to the United States, and how does it compare across historical periods? This chapter examines the trends ...

read more

Chapter 3. Revisiting Assimilation Theory

pdf iconDownload PDF (269.1 KB)
pp. 28-54

EVEN AS the United States has continued to admit substantial numbers of immigrants in recent decades, scholarly discussion has raised questions not only about how well these new arrivals are doing, but also what theoretical framework would best underpin our understanding of their relative success. In this chapter we examine this discussion about the progress of immigrants ...

read more

Chapter 4. Immigration and Immigrant Policy

pdf iconDownload PDF (213.0 KB)
pp. 55-77

IMMIGRATION IS one of the few areas of population change where governments can actively intervene to control or direct population. High-income societies—western Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan, and the United States—make rules about who gets in. Equally important, rules about admission also determine the composition of the immigrant flow. In this chapter ...

read more

Chapter 5. School: Educational Attainment of Immigrants and the Second Generation

pdf iconDownload PDF (320.1 KB)
pp. 78-111

FOR THE individual, educational attainment is a key determinant of future economic mobility in the United States (Becker and Tomes 1986; Blau and Duncan 1967). Certainly, our conventional American dream is predicated, in part, on the notion that universal access to education is a hallmark of opportunity. In the case of minority groups, education, often in combination ...

read more

Chapter 6. Work: Labor Market Achievement

pdf iconDownload PDF (343.0 KB)
pp. 112-149

THE QUESTION of how well immigrants do is often answered with an evaluation of the labor force experience and earnings of the foreign born. Of all the areas of immigrant adaptation that generate concern in the policy realm, labor market performance has received perhaps the most attention and research.1 Much of the economic focus has been on the relative performance ...

read more

Chapter 7. Neighborhood: Residential Assimilation of Immigrants and Ethnic Groups

pdf iconDownload PDF (190.7 KB)
pp. 150-170

PATTERNS OF neighboring give us a particularly clear window into the process of adaptation, adjustment, and assimilation of immigrants and ethnic groups in American society. Although violent confrontation is relatively rare, tension over who lives next door speaks of the visceral importance of neighborhood in American society. Who one’s neighbors are is important ...

read more

Chapter 8. Conclusion: Immigrant Assimilation and Social Policy

pdf iconDownload PDF (147.6 KB)
pp. 171-190

PERHAPS ONE of the most enduring images of American culture is that of near-penniless immigrants arriving at Ellis Island and, through dint of hard work, clambering their way up the ladder of success in the land of opportunity. No one doubts the power of this image, but how accurate is it? Do those who now come through the nation’s jetways or across the land border match ...

NOTES

pdf iconDownload PDF (93.2 KB)
pp. 191-202

REFERENCES

pdf iconDownload PDF (156.6 KB)
pp. 203-220

INDEX

pdf iconDownload PDF (75.1 KB)
pp. 221-226


E-ISBN-13: 9781610447584
Print-ISBN-13: 9780871549266

Page Count: 236
Publication Year: 2011

Research Areas

Recommend

UPCC logo
  • You have access to this content
  • Free sample
  • Open Access
  • Restricted Access

Welcome to Project MUSE

Use the Search box at the top of the page to find book and journal content. Refine results with the filtering options on the left side of the results page. Use the Browse box to browse a selection of books and journals.

Connect with Project MUSE

Project MUSE | 2715 North Charles Street | Baltimore, Maryland USA 21218 | (410) 516-6989 | About | Contact | Help | Tools | Order

©2013 Project MUSE. Produced by The Johns Hopkins University Press in collaboration with The Milton S. Eisenhower Library.