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Immigration to the United States: Recent Trends and Future Prospects

Immigration to the United States: Recent Trends and Future Prospects. Charles Hirschman Fulbright Visiting Professor International Conference on Migration, Urbanization and Development University of Malaya 8 July 2013. Overview. Historical and Current Trends Response to Immigration

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Immigration to the United States: Recent Trends and Future Prospects

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  1. Immigration to the United States: Recent Trends and Future Prospects Charles Hirschman Fulbright Visiting Professor International Conference on Migration, Urbanization and Development University of Malaya 8 July 2013

  2. Overview • Historical and Current Trends • Response to Immigration • Characteristics of Immigrants & Children • Selectivity • Is Immigration Good or Bad? • Diversity, Economy, Identity • Impact of Immigration on American Culture • Nation of Immigrants is who we are • Does the US case offer any lessons?

  3. www.migrationpolicy.org/datahub

  4. Contemporary Fears

  5. Fears of Immigrants Germans • Ben Franklin on Germans (1751) • Theodore Roosevelt (1907) Irish, Italians, Greeks, Poles, Slavs, & Eastern European Jews • Unfair economic competition • Could not assimilate • Not real Americans

  6. Irishman and Ape: Each is thankful that other is behind bars

  7. Motley horde of potential immigrantsmust be restrained

  8. Who are the New Immigrants? Compare the Post 1965 Wave with the Age of Mass Migration from 1880 to 1920

  9. Impact on American Society? Do Immigrants Assimilate? Jobs and Economy American Society: Family and Crime Sports Arts and Culture

  10. Socioeconomic Progress of Immigrants • 1880-1924 Wave: Southern and Eastern Europe • Considered to be not real Americans for decades • Popular hostility– also from elites and professors • Assimilation was an inter-generational process • Educational parity by 1920s • By 1950s • Residential integration • Intermarriage

  11. What are Prospects for New Immigrants? 2nd Generation fluency in English High levels of education 2nd Generation Advantage in schooling Universities and High-Tech Sector Intermarriage Esp. 2nd Generation Hispanics and Asians

  12. Findings from: The impact of immigration on the wages of native born American workers is near zero. White and Black Men and Women Skilled and Unskilled

  13. Immigrants in the Arts, Sports, and Culture

  14. Most US Chess Champions Foreign Born: 17 of the Top 24 Ranked Men Players 7 of the Top 8 Women Players Yury Shulman Belarus Anna Zatonskih Ukraine Source: http://main.uschess.org/content/view/169/203/

  15. 2008 National Spelling Bee Champions Sameer Mishra, First Place: 8th Grade, Indiana SidharthChand, Second Place: 7th Grade, Michigan Source: http://public.spellingbee.com/public/results/finishers

  16. “Striving in America and in the Spelling Bee” JOSEPH BERGER New York Times, June 5, 2005 In recent years, descendants of Indian immigrants - less than 1 percent of the population - have dominated this contest, snatching first place in five of the past seven years, and making up more than 30 of the 273 contestants this year.

  17. Reasons for Immigrant Impact • Scale of Immigration • Selectivity • Hardworking, driven, strivers • Reinforced with return migration • Innovative • Multiple cultural resources • Marginality • American institutions are receptive

  18. Clouds on the horizon • Continuing influx of new immigrants • Undocumented are vulnerable • Dysfunctional schools in major cities • Polite (& impolite) racism • Attractions of crime/drugs • One parent families

  19. Conclusions • Almost all Americans are descendants of immigrants • Most since founding of nation • Current Post 1965 Wave is not an exception • But hostility and backlash are also quite “American” • The children of immigrants do assimilate • If given rights and opportunity: past and present • Immigrants are selective, 2nd generation is a bonus • Immigrants also shape Culture • What is means to be an American

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