by Alex Meneses Miyashita
Mexican and Central American immigrants are assimilating at a much slower pace than immigrants from other parts of the world, a study sponsored by the Manhattan Institute concluded.
On the other hand, Panamanians and Cubans tend to assimilate the most among Latin American immigrants.
The findings were part of research that emphasized that immigrants of the past 25 years are assimilating at a rapid pace considering the surge in the immigrant population, which tends to drop assimilation levels, thus widening gaps between native and foreign-born.
The study quantified the assimilation levels of immigrants based on an index devised from Census data that took into consideration economic, cultural and civic factors that compared immigrants with native-born citizens.
Economic factors taken into account included the labor force, education and home ownership rates. Civic factors included rates of naturalization and military service. Cultural ones included English-language ability, marriage and childbearing trends.
Mexicans scored lower than any country of origin group except for Nepalese immigrants. Mexicans scored 13 on a 100point scale in which the higher the number meant the higher the degree of assimilation.
Central American immigrants generally had some of the lowest levels of assimilation as well: Guatemalans, 14, Hondurans, 15, and Salvadorans, 18.
In contrast, Panamanians scored 80 and Cubans 43. Germans had the highest assimilation index with 87.
Jacob Vigdor, author of the study and public policy studies and economic professor at Duke University, said the low assimilation rates of Mexicans have mainly to do with economic circumstances and the immigration status of many of them.
Mexicans represent the largest immigrant group in the United States, with an estimated 11 million as of 2006, the report points out. The Migration Policy Institute estimated more than half of them are undocumented.
“For immigrants who come to the country primarily to take advantage of economic opportunities, there is less of a need to assimilate,” he said.
“There are many immigrants who come to the United States with a desire to return home one day. For that type of immigrant, it’s less important to become a citizen and take other steps towards integration.”
Vigdor explained this contrasts with immigrants from other parts of the world, many of whom become political refugees. “Immigrants from Cuba who escaped the Castro regime,” he said, “can probably expect to be persecuted if they return. Once they’re here, they expect to be here for a long time.”
Vigdor also maintained that the lack of legal status of many Mexican immigrants makes it harder for them to advance in terms of economic and civic assimilation.
He noted that Mexicans have similar levels of cultural assimilation to other immigrants.
Laureen Laglagaron, a policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, attributed language to be the main barrier to integration for Mexican and other immigrants from nonEnglish speaking countries.
Vigdor said that although several immigrant groups face similar language difficulties, that does not prevent them “from making progress in the other dimensions.”
Laglagaron explained that language barriens can stand in the way of “immigrants getting better paying jobs and going to better schools,” which “may play a part in slowing the pace of immigrant integration.”
She added that in the case of high-skilled immigrants, lack of recognition of their foreign education or professional credentials is their main barrier to integration.
Laglagaron said her organization recommends governments to increase access to language and civic instruction to speed up the integration of immigrants who do not assimilate as fast as other groups.
Both experts agreed that the children of immigrants integrate at a much faster pace than their parents.
Vigdor said the children of immigrants who entered the country before they were six years old are -difficult to distinguish from American born children.”
For more information on the study, visit www.manhattan-institute.org. Hispanic Link.
