Some Immigrants Assimilate Faster Than Others

Conn Carroll / May 13, 2008

The virulently pro-amnesty Washington Post was in full spin mode today trying to make the best out of a new Manhattan Institute study on the rates at which foreign-born populations assimilate into the United States. The headline for the story blares “Study Says Foreigners In U.S. Adapt Quickly” and the lead paragraph reads: “Immigrants of the past quarter-century have been assimilating in the United States at a notably faster rate than did previous generations, according to a study released today.”

One has to read past the jump and all the way to paragraph 10 before finding out:

The overall assimilation index also masks big differences between immigrants from certain countries. Mexicans, for example have an index of 13 [100 is the highest level of assimilation], while Vietnamese were at 41. And although immigrants who arrived as children tend to be nearly identical to their U.S.-born counterparts, apart from their lower rates of citizenship, those who come from Mexico are less assimilated and have higher incidences of teenage pregnancy and incarceration.

Considering that the largest number of illegal immigrants in this country is from Mexico, one might think this highly relevant fact ought to have been included more prominently in the story.