-------------------- "I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. " - Thomas Jefferson
Posts: 775 | Location: Las Vegas | Registered: 05-16-2008
"Take me, I am the drug; take me, I am hallucinogenic"
Salvador Dali
That would explain most of his paintings...
-------------------- "I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. " - Thomas Jefferson
Posts: 775 | Location: Las Vegas | Registered: 05-16-2008
Measuring Immigrant Assimilation in the United States
by Jacob L. Vigdor
Executive Summary
This report introduces a quantitative index that measures the degree of similarity between native- and foreign-born adults in the United States. It is the ability to distinguish the latter group from the former that we mean when we use the term “assimilation.†The Index of Immigrant Assimilation relies on Census Bureau data available in some form since 1900 and as current as the year before last. The index reveals great diversity in the experiences of individual immigrant groups, which differ from each other almost as much as they differ from the native-born. They vary significantly in the extent to which their earnings have increased, their rate of learning the English language, and progress toward citizenship. Mexican immigrants, the largest group and the focus of most current immigration policy debates, have assimilated slowly, but their experience is not representative of the entire immigrant population.
Collective assimilation rates are lower than they were a century ago, although no lower than they have been in recent decades. And this is true despite the fact that recent immigrants have arrived less assimilated than their predecessors and in very large numbers. In addition to country of origin, the Index categorizes groups on the basis of date of arrival, age, and place of residence. Some groups have done far better or worse than the Index as a whole; Assimilation also varies considerably across metropolitan areas.
Here are some of the Index's significant findings:
The degree of similarity between the native- and foreign-born, although low by historical standards, has held steady since 1990. Assimilation declined during the 1980s, remained stable through the 1990s, and has actually increased slightly over the past few years.
Beyond presenting a snapshot of the degree of similarity between the native- and foreign-born, the assimilation index can be used to track the progress of immigrants who arrived in the United States at a common point in time. This simple extension shows that the relative stability of immigrant assimilation since 1990 masks two important and countervailing trends.
Newly arrived immigrants of the early 21st century have assimilation index values lower than the newly arrived immigrants of the early 20th century. Growth in the immigrant population usually lowers the assimilation index because newly arrived immigrants drag down the average for the group as a whole. This phenomenon can be seen between 1900 and 1920 and again in the 1980s. The stability of the assimilation index since 1990 is therefore remarkable in light of the rapid growth of the immigrant population, which doubled between 1990 and 2006. Immigrants of the past quarter-century have assimilated more rapidly than their counterparts of a century ago, even though they are more distinct from the native population upon arrival. The increase in the rate of assimilation among recently arrived immigrants explains why the overall index has remained stable, even though the immigrant population has grown rapidly. Yet the current level of assimilation remains lower than it was at any point during the early 20th century wave of immigration.
The assimilation index can be decomposed along several other dimensions. The overall, or composite, index is based on a series of economic, cultural, and civic factors. These sets of factors can be examined in isolation to produce three component indices. The economic index compares the labor force, educational attainment, and home ownership patterns of the foreign- and native-born. The cultural index focuses on English-speaking ability, marriage, and childbearing patterns. The civic index examines naturalization rates and compares the military service patterns of the foreign- and native-born. Separate analysis of these three dimensions of assimilation reveals that they do not increase in lockstep as immigrants spend more time in the United States.
Economic and civic assimilation often occurs without significant cultural assimilation. It is common for immigrant cohorts to naturalize and enjoy integration into the economic mainstream without posting many gains along cultural dimensions. Immigrants who arrived in the United States after 1995 are culturally assimilating more rapidly than their predecessors. The increased rate of overall assimilation shown by cohorts of recent arrivals can be traced in part to this pattern of relatively rapid cultural assimilation.
The assimilation index can be computed for individual country-of-origin groups, or for sets of immigrants who live in a particular city or region. Disaggregation by country of origin reveals important differences in the experiences of immigrants born in different parts of the world.
Immigrants from developed countries are not necessarily more assimilated. Immigrants born in Korea, which the World Bank classifies as a high-income country, have a collective assimilation index value lower than that of immigrants from Cuba or the Philippines, which are classified as low-income countries. Several factors can explain this pattern, among them the fact that immigrants from developed countries do not necessarily become naturalized citizens more rapidly than those from the developing world. The United States often attracts immigrants who belonged to the economic elite of their origin country. Immigrants from Vietnam, Cuba, and the Philippines enjoy some of the highest rates of assimilation. However, these groups assimilate more rapidly in some respects than others. For example, they are far more assimilated economically than they are culturally. Curiously, all of the countries mentioned have experienced U.S. military occupation. Mexican immigrants experience very low rates of economic and civic assimilation. Immigrants born in Mexico, particularly those living and working in the United States illegally, lie at the heart of many current debates over immigration policy. The assimilation index shows that immigrants from Mexico are very distinct from the native-born upon arrival and assimilate slowly over time. The slow rates of economic and civic assimilation set Mexicans apart from other immigrants, and may reflect the fact that the large numbers of Mexican immigrants residing in the United States illegally have few opportunities to advance themselves along these dimensions. Mexican immigrants experience relatively normal rates of cultural assimilation. Recent cohorts of Mexican immigrants have increased their rate of cultural assimilation just as immigrants born in other nations have done.
A specialized version of the assimilation index can be computed for foreign-born adolescents and young adults who came to the United States as young children and received their formal education exclusively in this country. This version of the assimilation index also reveals interesting patterns.
The foreign-born children of immigrants continue to bear a strong resemblance to their native-born counterparts. Although many members of this group are not naturalized citizens, they are difficult to distinguish from the native-born along other dimensions. Immigrant children born in Mexico are more distinct than immigrant children born in other foreign nations. This distinction is most obvious in terms of comparative naturalization rates, but extends to other dimensions as well. Mexican adolescents are imprisoned at rates approximately 80 percent greater than immigrant adolescents generally. Naturalization rates among the foreign-born children of immigrants have been increasing. In this respect, the behavior of foreign-born, domestically educated immigrants resembles that of their parents educated abroad.
Disaggregation by metropolitan area reveals widely varying rates of assimilation, due largely to the different combinations of immigrant groups that reside in each and the different characteristics of those groups.
Polyethnic New York City, which still attracts large numbers of European immigrants, has the second-highest assimilation index value among the metropolitan areas defined. San Diego, despite its proximity to the Mexican border, has the highest.
The methodology used to compute the assimilation index is outlined in the report and reviewed extensively in a more technical appendix. The method has been designed to take advantage of more than a century’s worth of historical data on the status of immigrants in the United States, made available to the public by the United States Census Bureau, and to provide the opportunity for annual updates.
The assimilation index points to marks of success, to encouraging recent trends, and also to areas of concern. Within these areas of concern, the index provides some insight into the nature of the problem and the universe of appropriate potential policy responses. It is important to note, however, that this report neither proposes nor endorses any policy responses. Its sole purpose is to present information in a manner useful to concerned citizens and policymakers who hope to make informed decisions regarding the proper course of action.
This is interesting for those who want to know. Dispels some of the internet gossip by certain organizations.
"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." John Adams on Defense of the boston Massacre
Multimillionaire Helps Undocumented Workers Post Bail
New America Media, News Report, Wendy Sefsaf, Posted: May 23, 2008
Editor's Note: Robert Hildreth is a multimillionaire immigration advocate who has helped bail out undocumented immigrants who have been arrested in ICE raids. Now he wants to create a national bond fund for the purpose. NAM contributor Wendy Sefsaf reports from Washington, D.C.
WASHINGTON -- Robert Hildreth, a self-made multimillionaire who built his fortune trading in Latin American bonds, wants to create a national bond fund that would help post bail for undocumented workers seized by immigration authorities.
Hildreth began posting bail out of his own pocket after seeing what he considered to be "un-American" images on TV of shackled workers being deported. Hidlreth, the son of high school teachers, called the Greater Boston Legal Services and told them to contact him if they needed help posting bonds for undocumented workers.
After doing this a few times, in a few different states, Hildreth decided his program should go national. His idea is to create a non-profit bond fund that would match 50 percent of bail funds in most cases, and provide 100 percent bail only in extreme cases. Advocates say this is crucial for workers who are coerced into signing deportation orders before talking to a lawyer or having their day in court. Helping them post bond enables them to get out of detention, contact a lawyer and regroup with their families.
By matching the funds, Hildreth is helping legal service groups and others get the ball rolling. But having the other half matched by the families themselves, Hildreth says, forces them to have a stake in the outcome and makes an individual less likely to “jump bail.â€
“Immigrants are the greatest savers in this country. If I put up half of the funds, the families can usually come up with the rest,†Hildreth observes. “For example, I paid $130,000 to bail out the immigrants rounded up in the New Bedford raids -- and within three weeks they came up with $130,000 of their own. I know the money is there and there is an extended family structure that is able to pool the necessary funds.â€
He also thinks that his approach appeals to our innate love of a bargain. “Everybody loves a deal,†Hildreth says. “If I went into Best Buy and shouted, 'I will pay for half of everything you buy,' that store would be cleared out in no time.â€
Angelica Salas of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles affirms the need for a bond fund. “This is about poor people having their day in court,†she says. “People have to understand that these workers are not appointed lawyers, not read their Miranda rights. They are swept up, usually taken to another state, interrogated and then later told they can hire a lawyer if they can find one.†She adds, “What Bob Hildreth has done is an amazing example of what people of conscience need to do in these horrible times; he is giving people their liberty and a reason to hope.â€
The national bond fund has more than $150,000 in pledges so far from previous bonds that have been returned to Hildreth with interest. These funds will be used to post future bonds and he is now hoping to build a significant fund. “When you pay for a bond, it is not a contribution. You get your money back with interest which returns back to the fund for the next person who needs it.†So far, no one helped by Hildreth has jumped bail.
Setting up a bond fund is not a new concept. The NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund provided bail money and legal assistance for civil rights demonstrators throughout the 1960s, including during the 1961 freedom rides led by the Congress of Racial Equality and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
Hildreth also sees the bail money as a lifeline. “We have families whose loved ones were arrested in Massachusetts and then sent to detention centers in Texas. The communication is cut off," he explains. "What we are finding in raids is that people don’t know their rights. They are forgoing their due process in the first 48 hours out of fear, and agree to be deported without having consulted an attorney. It would be wonderful if the word caught like wild fire that immigrants do have rights and furthermore you might find some help from me.â€
He thinks of immigration much like an economist would. “In America we should always be finding ways to match immigrant money,†he says. “Their propensity is to save. Immigrants sent home $60 billion last year in the form of remittances. My feeling is that we have a group of immigrants floating on a sea of money, how can we get them to invest more of it here?â€
He has tried creative ways to do just that even before his recent foray into immigrant rights, by supporting immigrant education initiatives. “This summer, 15 of the brightest Hispanic high school sophomores in Lynn, Massachusetts will be creating educational accounts. They will put up $250 and I will put up $500 and we will build up from there.†Why do we need to match their funds? “Because otherwise there is such a pull from Latin America to send every extra dollar down there. We know the highest drops outs are Hispanics, so creating these accounts early is going to get them going to college.â€
One might wonder why a descendant of Irish immigrants and Puritans who settled in Boston more than three centuries ago worries about immigrants coming to America today. “I am very pro-immigrant and it comes more from an American ideal than from being a Mother Theresa type. I think immigration is the only model America has ever known. We have never known a day, a minute, where we haven’t accepted immigrants. They provide huge economic benefits to us. The 12 million undocumented workers in this country spend billions of dollars every year in supermarkets, on rent and in taxes, etc. I have no idea what it would be like to yank them out by the root, and I wouldn’t want to take that risk.â€
However, the economist also has a philosophical bent on what it means to be an American. “I have a different view of what makes up the border of the U.S. It’s not dirt but ideas. So if you have a native-born American who hates capitalism or freedom of people to move and find work, I think that is less 'American' than the guys born in Latin American who have taken on our American ideals hook, line and sinker.â€
Aside from running his financial company and planning the bond fund, Hildreth is busy calling the supermarkets that allegedly benefit from undocumented workers in the Boston area. He is asking them to support a local immigration group that is holding their annual gala and contacting other groups in Iowa that are working with immigrants recently detained during a raid at a meat-packing plant. “I want them to know there is help here, if they need it,†says Hildreth.
The United States often attracts immigrants who belonged to the economic elite of their origin country. Immigrants from Vietnam, Cuba, and the Philippines enjoy some of the highest rates of assimilation. However, these groups assimilate more rapidly in some respects than others. For example, they are far more assimilated economically than they are culturally. Curiously, all of the countries mentioned have experienced U.S. military occupation.
Hi Hudson,
Very interesting read. I can attest to this, in particular, the Philippines. The article said that the economic assimilation is faster. The cultural assimilation isn't that far off. The US is a very strong influence in that country. Culturally speaking, despite the general conservative values that that country has, the American influence is widespread - from lifestyle, to fashion, to music, etc.
Do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, as long as ever you can.
Just in case somebody didn't read the other thread...
McCain Says Immigration Reform Should Be Top Priority By Michael Luo
SAN JOSE—In yet another sign of his pivoting toward the general election, Senator John McCain said at a roundtable with business leaders here today that comprehensive immigration reform should be a top priority for the next president.
Prices increase and supplies dip as facility begins to recover
Susan Goldstein has a freezer full of kosher meat at Suzie's Grill. She says she is unsure about future shipments. ERIC KAYNE: CHRONICLE
By ANTHONY WILLIAMS Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Claudia Avalos and her family might soon become vegetarians — but not exactly by choice.
The genesis of their dietary dilemma can be traced to an unlikely place: Postville, Iowa. In this northeastern Iowa town, federal immigration authorities raided and jailed nearly 400 undocumented workers two weeks ago at Agriprocessors Inc., the nation's largest kosher meat and poultry plant.
The plant quickly reopened to slower production, and the subsequent trickledown impact was felt immediately throughout the country. Consumers and businesses, Jews and non-Jews alike, including those in Houston, now worry about a shortage of kosher meat and rising prices. The raid, hailed by officials as the largest in U.S. history, was, to some, another example of the dependence of the U.S. labor force on undocumented workers.
On Wednesday, Avalos experienced this dynamic of economics firsthand.
She was shopping at Belden's grocery in Meyerland for kosher meat and poultry, only after finding none at the nearby H-E-B, where she usually buys it.
''We came to stock up," she said. ''If they ran out of kosher meat, we would just have vegetables."
Avalos said her family eats kosher because of the quality and their Jewish faith. She also thinks it's healthier.
Stores and restaurants that specialize in kosher products are mostly found in the Meyerland area. David Martinez, store director at Houston's only kosher H-E-B, said Agriprocessors was the store's supplier, and that they would be without kosher meat until they could find another.
Menachem Lubinsky, editor in chief of koshertoday.com, doesn't expect increases in kosher food prices or a need for hoarding.
"Pending any legal action from the federal government (against Agriprocessors, Inc.), it appears that we're OK," Lubinsky said.
However, Shelley Rappaport, manager of kosher Houston caterer Nosher, ordered meat the day after the raid, and prices had gone up, she said. Susan Goldstein, owner of Suzie's Grill, said kosher meat now costs twice as much as before.
"It's (difficult) for me to get meat, and it's a problem for customers who have to pay the price," she said.
Goldstein has plenty of meat this week and remains hopeful, despite being unsure about her future shipments. She said she'll persist, "Rubashkin or no Rubashkin," referencing the family that owns Agriprocessors.
Belden's store director Darryl Ames said they were well-stocked after buying from other manufacturers after the raid. Alvin Mata, co-manager of the Rice Epicurean on West Holcombe, said they were low after the raid but were fine now.
Zev Comer, a mashgiac, or kosher supervisor, said kosher price increases would greatly affect the consumer.
"Friday night through Saturday night is the sabbath. People have big sabbath meals and visit," he said. "Tradition calls for meat because it's a bigger meal, more festive, and some people feel very strongly that meat should be included."
Lee Payne, a sales representative for food distributor Ben E. Keith Co., said that employers hiring undocumented workers can face consequences and impact other parts of the U.S. food industry, noting the April raids of five Pilgrim's Pride poultry plants that netted about 300 illegal immigrants.
"There are a lot of illegal immigrants here working," he said. "Everyone's trying to reduce costs by hiring people with somewhat questionable backgrounds. It's going to cause ripples in the system."
Even with big events on her schedule, Goldstein said she and others would survive.
"Right now I'm worried. I'd be lying to you if I said I wasn't," she said. "We've been challenged before, but as my father often said, 'This too shall pass.' "
12:00 AM CDT on Thursday, May 29, 2008 By STEPHANIE SANDOVAL / The Dallas Morning News ssandoval@dallasnews.com / The Dallas Morning News Dianne SolÃs contributed to this report.
A federal judge on Wednesday struck down a Farmers Branch ordinance designed to block apartment rentals to most illegal immigrants.
And he minced no words in refusing to green-light a later ordinance the city's attorneys had tailored to overcome legal issues related to the first.
"The court has already held, at least as a preliminary matter, that five different versions of the [previous] ordinance violate the United States Constitution," U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay wrote. "The new ordinance is yet another attempt to circumvent the court's prior rulings and further an agenda that runs afoul of the United States Constitution."
But Judge Lindsay did not rule against the newer ordinance. Instead, he said the city had "put the cart before the horse" in asking for an opinion on the measure when it has drawn no federal court challenge.
That, however, may be about to change.
Once Judge Lindsay issues his final judgment – which an attorney for the city said would incorporate all of his rulings in the lawsuit against the original ordinance – the city will begin a 15-day countdown to enactment of the newer measure.
And Bill Brewer, who represents some of the plaintiffs in the suit over the earlier measure, said Wednesday that if the city tries to implement the newer version, he will challenge it, too.
Newly elected Mayor Tim O'Hare, who as a City Council member has led the city's efforts to drive out illegal immigrants, said he expects Judge Lindsay to block the newer measure as well.
"Then we would have two ordinances with which we can appeal to the 5th Circuit," Mr. O'Hare said. "We're confident in the end that we're going to prevail."
Judge Lindsay issued his permanent injunction barring implementation of the earlier measure, Ordinance 2903, a little more than a year after Farmers Branch voters approved it 2-to-1.
"The people's will, and people's decisions, and people's wishes once again get ignored and overturned," City Council member David Koch said.
Judge Lindsay said in his ruling that he was aware of the widespread support for Ordinance 2903, and he recognized citizens' frustration over federal failure to enforce immigration laws. But he said the court must decide whether the law passes constitutional muster.
"This is not the first time – nor will it be the last – that a court has held a politically popular ordinance to be unconstitutional," the judge wrote.
Mr. Brewer said, "Clearly, if we are not gaining popularity for our view, at least we are gaining credibility."
Ordinance 2903 would have required apartment managers or owners to obtain and maintain evidence that tenants are U.S. citizens or legal residents. Opponents argued that it would saddle apartment personnel with the duties of immigration officers, unfairly burdening them with deciding who was eligible to rent.
The City Council adopted the newer measure, Ordinance 2952, in January. It would require prospective renters to pay $5 and declare their citizenship or legal U.S. residency to obtain a license to rent a house or apartment. Landlords could rent to anyone with a license, but the city would check the tenants' information against a federal database to confirm their legal status.
Judge Lindsay's decision against Ordinance 2903 came in a summary judgment – without allowing the case to go to trial.
He wrote that only the federal government may determine whether someone is in the country legally. And he said the city, rather than deferring to the federal government's determination of immigration status, had created its own classification scheme for determining which noncitizens could rent apartments.
"Because Farmers Branch has attempted to regulate immigration differently from the federal government, the ordinance is preempted by the supremacy clause" of the Constitution, Judge Lindsay said.
He said numerous city proposals to revise the law failed because they would have required the court to essentially redraft the measure, which is not the court's job.
Lisa Graybill, legal director for the ACLU of Texas, which is one of the parties in the case, hailed the ruling.
"It's a very clear victory for those of us who said from the beginning there are other more constitutional solutions to the problems that Farmers Branch identified and that these solutions so far are not only impractical, not only implausible, but clearly unconstitutional."
Michael Jung of Strasburger & Price, the law firm representing the city, expressed hope that Ordinance 2952 would ultimately withstand legal challenges.
"The legal problems ... [Judge Lindsay] identifies with Ordinance 2903 have been addressed and we believe resolved in Ordinance 2952," Mr. Jung said.
At the Washington-based Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group that wants more immigration restrictions, spokesman Ira Mehlman noted that tough laws have been upheld in Arizona and Oklahoma.
"There are a lot of conflicting legal opinions floating out there," he said, "and obviously, at some point, they are going to have to be bundled up by a higher court. Our view is that all these will be upheld."
Some of those who rail against illegal immigration can dish it out but they can't take it. Because most illegal immigrants come from Mexico or other parts of Latin America, critics sometimes say the sort of crude things that give the debate its anti-Latino flavor. But let someone call them on it and do they ever get defensive.
Speaking to supporters in Palm Beach last week, Barack Obama blasted a couple of media personalities by name.
"A certain segment has basically been feeding a kind of xenophobia. There's a reason why hate crimes against Hispanic people doubled last year," Obama said. "If you have people like Lou Dobbs and Rush Limbaugh ginning things up, it's not surprising that would happen."
It's about time. That some cable hosts and radio talkers grow their ratings by pandering to the anti-immigrant crowd is no big secret.
Not surprisingly, supporters of Dobbs and Limbaugh went on the attack. They insisted that Obama had overstated the statistics. In 2006, the FBI reported that hate crimes against Hispanics increased 10 percent from the previous year -- 576 in 2006, 522 in 2005. Nevertheless, Hispanics in 2006 were considered by the FBI as the No. 1 victim of hate crimes motivated by one's ethnicity or national origin, and by a margin that was the highest since records have been kept.
So Obama was on the right track. In a world where the remnants of the Ku Klux Klan use immigration to recruit members and where neo-Nazis have produced a computer game in which players shoot Mexicans crossing the border and watch them explode, it's obvious these are hard times for Hispanics.
Limbaugh has made his share of sophomoric remarks. Not long ago, he aired a parody of a group calling itself "Jose y Los Ilegales" singing "The Star-Spanglish Banner," complete with Speedy Gonzales accents and offensive lyrics.
Still, there is a difference between sophomoric and sinister, and Dobbs is more accurately described as the latter. Fox News' Geraldo Rivera recently referred to Dobbs as a "hatemonger" for his treatment of the immigration issue.
That also seems to be the view of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which recently teamed up with the liberal group, Media Matters for America, to issue a report examining how the immigration debate is framed by cable news shows, including CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight." The report found that these kinds of shows overflow "not just with vitriol, but also with a series of myths that feed viewers' resentment and fears, seemingly geared toward creating anti-immigrant hysteria." Among the most common myths -- that illegal immigrants commit more than their share of crime, drain social services, and conspire to retake the Southwest and return it to Mexico.
Dobbs also blurs the line between legal and illegal immigration. He uses guests from restrictionist groups that favor limiting legal immigration as well without pointing out their agendas. And the show mixes segments on border security (which deals explicitly with illegal immigration) and the Spanish language, the Mexican flag and multiculturalism (which could just as easily be tied to legal immigration).
It also doesn't help Dobbs' reputation that, during an interview last year on CBS' "60 Minutes," he recalled a meeting with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in which the CNN host claimed that the representatives, in trying to establish if he was pro-Latino, asked him if he "had ever eaten a taco . . . and an enchilada."
That crack inspired a letter of protest to CBS from Rep. Joe Baca, D-Calif., insisting that Dobbs' comments did not "reflect the true nature of the discussion at our meeting." He called Dobbs' juvenile and stereotypical remarks about Mexican food "just one example of how he continues to belittle Hispanic members of Congress and the Hispanic community."
So did Barack Obama go too far in criticizing media talkers who are poisoning the public mood against Latinos? Are you kidding? He only scratched the surface.
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