Immigrants Prosper in The U.S. But Will Their Generational Progeny Keep Moving Upward?
These findings may come as a surprise at a time of pervasive pessimism about the American dream. But as the struggles along our southern border and with visa over-stayers from other parts of the world suggest, strivers everywhere still see the U.S. as the promised land. Immigrants endure painful leave-takings and dangerous journeys because they knew that the grinding poverty, ancient hatreds, violence, and entrenched social hierarchies of their home countries would block their aspirations. They knew their children would be better off in rich, relatively orderly, and socially fluid America even today, with its immigration ambivalence. Mexicans making their way here, to take one example, have on average only a little over a ninth-grade education