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.

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