PragerU ' s " A Nation of Immigrants " Video Has Serious Problems

This report finds problems with immigrant assimilation in Europe, especially for those from outside of the European Union, but the findings for the United States are positive.   In comparison to Europe and the rest of the OECD, immigrants in the United States are assimilating very well. The thirdwork by University of Washington economistJacob Vigdor offers a historical perspective.   He compares modern immigrant civic and cultural assimilation to the level of immigrant assimilation in the early 20th century (an earlier draft of his book chapter ishere while the published version is available in thiscollection).   For those of us who think early 20th century immigrants from Italy, Russia, Poland, Eastern Europe, and elsewhere 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 [emphasis added]. ”50 million residents of America are foreign-born.   In fact, today the United States has more immigrants as a percentage of its total population than at any time since 1890. According to the 2016American Community Survey (ACS), there were 43.7 million foreign-b...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs