Why So Many Children of Immigrants Rise to the Top

By Peter Coy of The NY Times. Excerpts:

"A new book, “Streets of Gold: America’s Untold Story of Immigrant Success,” by two economists, Prof. Ran Abramitzky of Stanford and Prof. Leah Boustan of Princeton, should undercut some of the fearmongering."

"on average, the children of immigrants were exceptionally good at moving up the economic ladder."

"Immigrants and their children are assimilating into the United States as quickly now as in the past, the economists found. That’s in line with recent research into the effects of immigration. While “first-generation immigrants are more costly to governments than are the native-born,” according to a 2017 report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, the “second generation are among the strongest fiscal and economic contributors in the U.S.”"

"Looking at census records from 1880, the researchers found that men whose fathers were low-income immigrants made more money as adults than the sons of low-income men born in the United States."

"Children born around 1980 to men from Mexico, India, Brazil and almost every other country outearned the children of U.S.-born men."

"the children had an easy time outdoing parents whose careers were inhibited by poor language skills or a lack of professional credentials. The classic example is an immigrant doctor who winds up driving a cab in the United States."

"immigrants tended to settle in parts of the country experiencing strong job growth. That gave them an edge over native-born Americans who were firmly rooted in places with faltering economies. Immigrants are good at doing something difficult: leaving behind relatives, friends and the familiarity of home in search of prosperity. The economists found that native-born Americans who do what immigrants do — move toward opportunity — have children who are just as upwardly mobile as the children of immigrants."

"Professor Abramitzky and Professor Boustan dispute the argument that immigrants frequently take jobs from native-born Americans. Less skilled immigrants gravitate toward jobs for which there is relatively little competition from native-born Americans, such as picking crops, while highly skilled immigrants often create more jobs for native-born Americans by starting businesses and inventing things, they write."

"today’s immigrants are advancing just as swiftly as those of the past. “The American dream,” Professor Abramitzky said in an interview, “is just as alive now as it was a century ago.”"