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Are immigrants assimilating?
Current immigrants — especially Mexicans — are less assimilated than those 100 years ago, a study released Tuesday found.
However, the pace of assimilation over the past 25 years is higher than in previous waves, said the study by the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank in New York.
“The nation’s capacity to integrate new immigrants is strong,” said Jacob Vigdor, an associate professor of Public Policy Studies and Economics at Duke University who authored the study.
But the progress “is not present for all groups and in particular, it’s not present among some of the Latin American immigrants that are at the heart of the immigration debate these days,” he added.
The study uses Census data going back more than a century to measure assimilation through various indicators such as English-learning, employment, home ownership, rates of marriage to native-born people, child bearing, naturalization, educational attainment, military service and many others.
Based on these factors, the study creates an assimilation index ranging from 1 to 100, with 100 being complete assimilation.
Currently, immigrants collectively have an assimilation rate of 28. In 1900, it was above 50.
Jeffrey Passel, a demographer with the Pew Hispanic Center, a non-partisan research group in Washington, said that the index was flawed as a measure of assimilation.
“Assimilation is a process that takes place over time and over generations. They’re not measuring that,” he said.
In addition, Passel said that the snapshot of immigrant assimilation is weighed heavily towards new immigrants who are clearly going to be less integrated into the larger society. In addition, he said that the study fails to take into account that 30 percent of current immigrants are in the United States illegally, which is vastly different than a century ago.
Read more here.
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By Dr. Long
May 15, 2008 10:50 AM | Link to this
No they’re not. They teach the children, most who are American born, to be Mexican. The kids tell you they are, they refuse to say the pledge, the talk “hate” against us, they call their teacher’s names, and brag that they are going to take over our country. The parents don’t bother to learn English. They say they don’t need to. We have to have interpreters at parent teacher conferences even for those who have been in the country for 20 years.
By L1M89
June 2, 2008 12:10 PM | Link to this
“Illegal immigrant mystery health tab”
Link - http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=200153&src=2
[‘SPRINGFIELD — As the state’s unpaid medical bills continue to climb, Illinois has enrolled thousands of undocumented immigrant children into Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s All Kids insurance program, yet officials don’t know how much taxpayers are spending on their care.
“The figure is not available,” Mark Iocca, an attorney handling information requests for the administration, said in responding to a Daily Herald legal request about those costs.
A total of 1.4 million children receive state-provided health care under All Kids. Many of them were previously enrolled in Kid Care, which was folded into the new All Kids program in 2006.
All Kids spent $1.85 billion on children’s care in the 2007 budget year. Iocca said fewer than 4 percent of the enrollees were undocumented but said specific cost information was unavailable. He also said 2008 budget information was not available.
The distinction is key as undocumented immigrants’ health care generally is not eligible for federal Medicaid dollars. That means Illinois taxpayers foot the bill for the health care of undocumented children.
Critics say such coverage expansions — especially those with undocumented immigrants — are overburdening a system that has long had problems paying medical providers on time.’] In our society today, taxpaying American Citizens are struggling to make ends meet & paying their own bills on time. We mustn’t pay for the care of Illegal Aliens & their families.