Study: Immigrants In U.S. Assimilating Well

By Ruxandra Guidi
November 16, 2011

Photo by Ruxandra Guidi
Faustino Hernandez came from Mexico as a teenager. Now in his 30s, he owns the diner in Oceanside, CA where he started working as a dishwasher.

SAN DIEGO -- The report, called "Assimilation Tomorrow," was co-authored by the Center for American Progress and demographers from USC (University of Southern California).

Focusing on the last great wave of immigration in the 1990s, authors Dowell Myers and John Pitkin found that those immigrants are integrating well into American society and across all generations.

Analyzing demographic trends - including education, home ownership, and English proficiency - the researchers project that by 2030, the current immigrant population will speak better English, have obtained more college degrees, and have higher income levels than previous immigrants.

Myers and Pitkin concluded they are doing better than immigrants who end up in some European countries.

"The coming decade is a pivotal period in the nation’s economic history and deserves to be closely monitored," the authors wrote in the introduction. "The findings of this study demonstrate how rapidly the new immigrant residents are likely to advance. Their success will be a vitally important contribution to the new economy."

There are an estimated 40 million foreign-born residents in the U.S. today; the most ever. That statistic also includes about 12 million undocumented immigrants.