A new study shows that even the poorest immigrants lift themselves up within a generation
The adult children of immigrants, almost universally, show more upward economic mobility than their peers whose parents were born in the United States. Indeed, a new working paper by Stanford Universitys Ran Abramitzky; Princeton Universitys Leah Platt Boustan and Elisa Jcome; and the University of California Davis Santiago Prez finds that this is especially true for the lowest-income immigrants and remains true for the most recent cohorts for which data is available. ____
Prior research has shown that immigrants who start out earning less than their US-born peers are unlikely to catch up in their lifetimes. And among more recent immigrants, that initial income gap is growing bigger and harder to close. But the new study shows that, even if immigrants start out with low income levels, most are not only catching up eventually but surpassing their US-born peers even if it takes a generation. ____
We dont even have to reach for these cultural explanations, Boustan said in an interview. A lot of it has to do with immigrants being willing to move anywhere and choosing locations where there are growing industries and a good set of job opportunities for their kids. Those are choices that immigrants are making that are different from the US-born and that could be a feature of immigrant success.
The first generation arriving in the US, however, might also have difficulty finding work at income levels that reflect their true talents and abilities due to a variety of factors: limited English skills, lack of an established professional network in the US, and discrimination, Boustan said. A classic scenario might be a Russian scientist who comes to the US and works as a cab driver. In that case, the second generation might be able to move up more quickly than their fathers income ranking would suggest. What might matter for the kids is what their fathers true talents and abilities were, rather than where he gets placed in the labor market, Boustan said. ____
Boustan said the paper pushes back on the idea of model minorities: that minorities from certain ethnic or racial backgrounds tend to find more socioeconomic success than others. Its typically been used to describe Asians in contrast to Hispanics and African Americans. But regardless of race or ethnicity, children of immigrants from the overwhelming majority of the countries they studied performed better than the US-born.
The papers findings also challenge Trumps ideas about who should be allowed to immigrate to the US. In fact, immigrants from Mexico, El Salvador, and African nations such as Nigeria are all performing better than the US-born. And in past waves of immigration, immigrants from Norway actually performed worse than the US-born. We take it as a warning against taking a nostalgic view of immigration, Abramitzky said.
Newsflash: Mexicans, Nigerians, and other 'shithole' countries (according to Trump) have harder and better-working people than Americans. Also, immigrants from Trumpastani countries are doing worse.
Using Trump's logic -- "When Norwegians come here, THEY ARE NOT SENDING THEIR BEST !" ---
You don't need a treaty to have free trade. M Rothbard {Self-Hating Token Asian of the Ivory Tower's Zionist Elite}