The 14 Most Common Arguments against Immigration and Why They ' re Wrong

This report finds more problems with immigrant assimilation in Europe, especially for those from outside of the European Union, but the findings for the United States are quite positive.The third work, by University of Washington economist Jacob Vigdor, compares modern immigrant civic and cultural assimilation to that of immigrants from the early 20th century (an earlier draft of his book chapter ishere, the published version is available in thiscollection).   If you think early 20th century immigrants and their descendants eventually assimilated successfully, Vigdor’s conclusion is reassuring:While there are reasons to think of contemporary migration from Spanish-speaking nations as distinct from earlier waves of immigration, evidence does not support the notion that this wave of migration poses a true threat to the institutions that withstood those earlier waves.   Basic indicators of assimilation, from naturalization to English ability, are if anything stronger now than they were a century ago.Ethnic attrition, which is when immigrants and their descendants shed their identification with ethnic or country-of-origin identity, does complicate how social scientists measure immigrant assimilation.   Through intermarriage and time, the more educated descendants of Hispanic immigrants fail to identify as Hispanic which biases the view of assimilation over the generations for those who rely purely on ethnic self-identification.  Adjusting for ethnic attrition by tracking th...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs