Mr. President! Free Border Patrol Agents Ramos and Compean!

Mr. President! Free Border Patrol Agents Ramos and Compean!

Please join fellow GOPUSA activists in petitioning President Bush for a full pardon for Agents Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos.


E-mail this story to a friend
Have comments? Send them to the editor.
Printer Friendly Version
Subscribe for Free!
Other Columns by Linda Chavez
Linda Chavez Bio
Immigrants Assimilating Faster
By Linda Chavez
May 16, 2008

A new study out this week by the Manhattan Institute should dispel a few myths on immigrant assimilation. The study looked at a range of factors -- economic, cultural, and civic -- to assess whether today's immigrants are becoming part of the American mainstream. But it also compared this generation of immigrants to the Great Wave who came to America's shores in the early part of the 20th century. The good news is that today's immigrants appear to be assimilating at faster rates than those older generations of immigrants, even though they start out with more disadvantages.

Not surprisingly, some immigrant groups -- Canadians, Cubans, and Filipinos -- are perfectly assimilated on economic measures, while others, especially Mexicans, lag behind. The study's author, Duke University professor Jacob L. Vigdor, looked at earned income, labor force participation, unemployment, occupation, educational attainment, and home ownership in computing economic assimilation. On these measures Canadian, Cuban, and Filipino immigrants were indistinguishable from the native-born.

But the study also contained some interesting surprises. For example, even though Vietnamese immigrants scored 99 (on a scale of 100) on economic assimilation and exhibited the highest degree of civic assimilation (as measured by naturalization rates and military service), they scored about the same on cultural assimilation (as measured by English proficiency, intermarriage, and childbearing) as Mexicans and Salvadorans. And the groups that fared the worst on cultural assimilation measures were Indians and Chinese; while Mexicans, Salvadorans, Canadians, and Indians measured poorly on civic assimilation.

The study did not distinguish between immigrants who entered the country legally and those who entered illegally, because census data don't include such information. But, of course, across all measures, legal status is critical to assimilation. Mexicans are far more likely than other immigrants to have entered the U.S. illegally, so it's little wonder they have the lowest civic assimilation rates and fare more poorly on economic measures.

But, what about Canadian and Indian immigrants? There's little clue why they don't join the military or become citizens at higher rates, but Prof. Vigdor does suggest that those who scored highest on civic assimilation, Vietnamese and Filipinos, come from countries that experienced recent U.S. military intervention in the past 100 years; but then so did the Dominican Republic, whose immigrants score in the middle range on civic assimilation.

The immigration debate -- at least at the national level -- has simmered down since its boiling point last summer. Congress continues to abrogate its responsibility to come up with reasonable immigration reform, but it can't avoid doing so forever. States and local jurisdictions have already tried to fill the void, but with mixed -- you might say schizophrenic -- results. Arizona, for example, passed tough laws to punish employers who hire illegal immigrants, only to find itself in a labor crunch, with dire consequences for the state economy. Now Arizona, Colorado, and a handful of other states are exploring whether they can create their own "guest worker" programs to bring in more Mexican workers.

>> Continued -- Page 1 2

Today's Video Highlight


Palin to campaign in Ga. for Sen. Chambliss
Officials: Obama set to introduce Clinton Monday
Rice: Pakistan must cooperate in terror probe
Liberals to keep pressure on Obama for results
Specter: 'I'll be prepared' for 2010 race
Go to News Central


I Beg Your Pardon, Mr. President
GOP Needs Return To Limited Government Agenda
Social Engineering: National Suicide
Obama Nominees Signal Radical Pro-U.N. Agenda
Veterans Continue To Voice Concerns On The Obama Presidency
Read More Commentary


Students lie, cheat, steal, but say they're good by oldjules
U.S. Gov't to Release New Dollar Coins by Terri
First day in December by Charie
The “Fairness Doctrine” is The Censorship Doctrine by oldjules
Discuss Issues in the Forum


Obama's Iraq Challenge
Bailout: The New American Business Model
Time is Running Out for President to Free Border Agents
Visit The Loft

Legislative Action Center
Mr. President! Free Border Patrol Agents Ramos and Compean!
Results of Friday's House Vote on Bailout Bill
Results of Wednesday's Senate Vote on Bailout Bill
Support the Contract with Conservatives

Grassroots Survey Team
View recent survey results
Join the survey team!

Latest Online Poll
Do you support expanded drilling of oil in the U.S. to help combat the high price of gasoline?
View poll archives

Check out these resources at GOPUSA!

There is even more information in GOPUSA's Resources section.

Seen a good resource?
Let us know!

Newsmax: Who Replaces Hillary?

The Chavez Democrats

NASA Wary of Relying on Russia

Do House Democrats Take Terrorism Seriously?

Boeing's Audacious Allies


"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK. That's not leadership. That's not going to happen."
-- Barack Obama
Get our RSS news feedSign up for e-mail updates
Read us on your wireless deviceAdd us to your web site
Download us to your PDASend letter to the editor
E-mail this pageContact us

   
Web     GOPUSA Web Site

   

Get your daily dose of wit at GOPUSA's Cartoon Central.

Place your ad for FREE and get noticed at GOPUSA!!.

 

Conservative Classifieds

Declaration of Independence

United States Constitution

Federalist Papers

Presidential Inaugural Addresses

Searching For The Gipper

Scrolling Text provided by JPowered,com