This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
MOVERS / SHAKERS
Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Repub- backlashes of one kind or another, and new survey; some by our analysis of
lic, El Salvador or any of more than a the latest one is no exception. Illegal government data) and subjecting it to
dozen other Spanish-speaking coun- immigration, in particular, has be- a series of comparisons: between Lati-
tries. An additional 20% generally use come a highly-charged political issue nos and non-Latinos; between young
the terms “Hispanic” or “Latino” first in recent times. It is also a relatively Latinos and older Latinos; between
when describing themselves. Only new phenomenon; past immigration foreign-born Latinos and native-born
about one-in-four (24%) generally use waves did not generate large numbers Latinos; and between first, second,
the term “American” first. of illegal immigrants because the U.S. and third and higher generations of
Among the U.S.-born children of imposed fewer restrictions on immi- Latinos.
immigrants, “American” is somewhat gration flow in the past than it does The generational analyses present-
more commonly used as a primary now. ed here do not compare the outcomes
term of self-identification. Even so, The current wave may differ of individual Latino immigrants with
just 33% of these young second gen- from earlier waves in other ways as those of their own children or grand- Community
eration Latinos use American first, well. More than a few immigration children. Instead, our generational
while 21% refer to themselves first by scholars have voiced skepticism that analysis compares today’s young La-
the terms Hispanic or Latino, and the the children and grandchildren of to- tino immigrants with today’s children
plurality-41%-refer to themselves first day’s Hispanic immigrants will enjoy and grandchildren of yesterday’s im-
by the country their parents left in or- the same upward mobility experi- migrants. As such, the report can pro-
Values
der to settle and raise their children in enced by the offspring of European vide some insights into the intergen-
this country. immigrants in previous centuries.3 erational mobility of an immigrant
Only in the third and higher gen- Their reasons vary, and not all are group over time. But it cannot fully
erations do a majority of Hispanic consistent with one another. Some disentangle the many factors that may
youths (50%) use “American” as their scholars point to structural changes help explain the observed patterns-be
Tradition
first term of self-description. in modern economies that make it they compositional effects (the differ-
Immigration in Historical Perspec- more difficult for unskilled laborers ent skills, education levels and other
tive to climb into the middle class. Some forms of human capital that different
Measured in raw numbers, the say the illegal status of so many of to- cohorts of immigrants bring) or pe-
Opportunity
modern Latin American-dominated day’s immigrants is a major obstacle riod effects (the different economic
immigration wave is by far the larg- to their upward mobility. Some say conditions that confront immigrants
est in U.S. history. Nearly 40 million the close proximity of today’s send- in different time periods).
immigrants have come to the Unit- ing countries and the relative ease of Readers should be especially care-
ed States since 1965. About half are modern global communication re- ful when interpreting findings about
from Latin America, a quarter from duce the felt need of immigrants and the third and higher generation, for
Asia and the remainder from Europe, their families to acculturate to their this is a very diverse group. We esti-
Canada, the Middle East and Africa. new country. Some say the fatalism of mate that about 40% are the grand-
Family
By contrast, about 14 million immi- Latin American cultures is a poor fit children of Latin American immi-
grants came during the big Northern in a society built on Anglo-Saxon val- grants, while the remainder can trace
and Western European immigration ues. Some say that America’s growing their roots in this country much far-
wave of the 19th century and about 18 tolerance for cultural diversity may ther back in time.
million came during the big Southern encourage modern immigrants and For some in this mixed group, en-
You deserve a career with a purpose. This
and Eastern European-dominated im- their offspring to retain ethnic identi- demic poverty and its attendant social
migration wave of the early 20th cen- ties that were seen by yesterday’s im- ills have been a part of their families,
human-service career has the potential to be
tury.2 migrants as a handicap. (The melting barrios and colonias for generations,
your lifelong passion because you’ll be giv-
However, the population of the pot is dead. Long live the salad bowl.) even centuries. Meantime, others in
United States was much smaller dur- Alternatively, some say that Latinos’ the third and higher generation have
ing generations of children the opportunity
ing those earlier waves. When mea- brown skin makes assimilation diffi- been upwardly mobile in ways con-
sured against the size of the U.S. pop- cult in a country where white remains sistent with the generational trajecto-
to reach their full potential as responsible
ulation during the period when the the racial norm. ries of European immigrant groups.
adults.
immigration occurred, the modern It will probably take at least another Because the data we use in this report
wave’s average annual rate of 4.6 new generation’s worth of new facts on the do not allow us to separate out the dif-
immigrants per 1,000 population falls ground to know whether these theo- ferent demographic sub-groups with-
well below the 7.7 annual rate that ries have merit. But it is not too soon in the third and higher generation, the
prevailed in the mid- to late 19th cen- to take some snapshots and lay down overall numbers we present are aver-
Visit www.scouting.org for information
tury and the 8.8 rate at the beginning some markers. This report does so by ages that often mask large variances
of the 20th century. assembling a wide range of empirical within this group. on employment opportunities in Scouting.
All immigration waves produce evidence (some generated by our own Source: Hispanic Pew Center
62 HISPANIC NETWORK MAGAZINE Celebrating 18 Years of Diversity www.hnmagazine.com
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74
Produced with Yudu - www.yudu.com