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Generation in an Age of Diversity Michigan State University March 1999 In at least one sense, the so-called "American century" is ending much as it began: the United States has become a nation of immigrants and is again being profoundly transformed. Central to that transformation are the modes of incorporation of today's immigrants - and more consequentially still, of their offspring. Immigrant children and U.S.-born children of immigrants - the fastest-growing segment of the United States' child population - accounted for 15% of all American children in 1990, including about 60% of all Hispanic children and an overwhelming 90% of all Asian-American children (Zhou, 1997); today, based on analysis of the 1997 Current Population Survey1, they number 13.7 million, or nearly 20% of all American children. The last census counted 2 million foreign-born children under 18, and another 6 million U.S.-born children under 18 living with immigrant parents (Oropesa and Landale, 1997). Between 1990 and 1997, the immigrant population increased from 20 to 27 million, with the number of their children growing commensurately. By 1997, there were 3 million foreign-born children and nearly 11 million U.S.-born children under 18 with at least one foreign-born parent. The sheer magnitude of this demographic transformation is impressive. The United States' "immigrant stock" today numbers about 55 million people - persons who are either immigrants (26.8 million) or U.S.-born children of immigrants (27.8 million). That figure - one-fifth of the national total - does not include 2.8 million others who were born, as were their parents, in Puerto Rico or other U.S. territories, nor the number residing in Puerto Rico and other territories. If today's "immigrant stock" formed a country, it would rank in the top 10% in the world in population size - about twice the size of Canada and roughly the size of the United Kingdom, France, or Italy. Immigrant families are heavily concentrated in areas of settlement. One-third resides in California and another third in Florida, Texas, and the New York-New Jersey region, with still denser concentrations within key metropolitan areas in those states (Raumbaut, 1994a; Farley, 1996). In Los Angeles County, an astounding 62% of the area's 9.5 million people are of immigrant stock, as are 54% of the populations of New York and Orange County, 43% of the population of San Diego, and 72% of the population of Miami (Highest count rate in the U.S.). Of the 27 million foreign-born, 60% arrived between 1980 and 1997, and an overwhelming 90% immigrated to the U.S. since 1960. Of those post-1960 "new immigrants," 52% came from the Caribbean and Latin America, including 28% from Mexico alone. Another 29% came from Asia and the Middle East; the Filipinos, Chinese, and Indochinese account for 15% of the total, or as much as all of those born in Europe and Canada combined. This "new immigration" is of very recent vintage. For the record, the 1965 changes in United States' immigration law did not usher in these new flows, as is often claimed. While the 1965 Act opened the door to previously excluded Asian and African immigration, it had nothing to do with the predominant flows from the Americas - in fact, the law actually sought to restrict the flows from the Western Hemisphere for the first time - or with the huge refugee resettlement programs that were a legacy of the Indochina War specifically, and of the Cold War generally. Immigration is mostly the province of the young. Of more than 24 million immigrants who arrived since 1960, 80% arrived 34 years old or younger. Only 10% immigrated after the age of 40. Nearly half of the post-1960 immigrants are Hispanic, and one-fourth are Asian. Of the 28 million who form the U.S.-born "second generation," or those with at least one foreign-born parent, about 56% are children under 18 or young adults - mostly the offspring of the new immigrants from Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. About a third, however, are over 55 - born before World War II to European parents who immigrated earlier this century. Of the U.S.-born second generation, almost half of those born since 1960 claim Hispanic ethnicity, compared to only 15% of those born between 1930-1959 and 5% of those born before 1930. The increasing size and concentration of this emerging population,
added to its diverse origins, makes its evolution extraordinarily
important. While the rapid growth of U.S. immigration over the
last three decades has led to mushrooming body of research and
intensified public debate over their impact on American society,
little noticed has been paid to the fact that a new generation
of Americans raised in immigrant families has been coming of
age. Over time, its members will decisively shape the character,
successes, and failures of their ethnic communities (Portes,
1996; Portes and Rumbaut, 1996). Hence, the long-term effects
of contemporary immigration will hinge more on the trajectories
of these youths than the fate of their parents. Children of today's
immigrants - a post-immigrant generation oriented not to their
parents' pasts, but to their own American futures - are here
to stay. They represent the most consequential and lasting legacy
of the U.S.'s new mass immigration. Hardcopy Price: $3.00
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