When Do They Find the Time to Destroy America?

Two great posts at the Cato Institute's wonkblog, Cato Unbound. First, Stephen J. Trejo weighs in on Mexicans' ability to assimilate.

What do we know about the socioeconomic achievement of the children,
grandchildren, and more distant descendants of Mexican immigrants? In
light of the reasons for pessimism listed above, U.S.-born Mexican
Americans have done surprisingly well, though certainly areas of
serious concern remain. Like Europeans in the past, Mexicans enjoy
ample intergenerational progress between first-generation immigrants
and their second-generation children. Relative to their parents, the
U.S.-born second generation experiences dramatic increases in English
proficiency, educational attainment, and earnings. From this
generational perspective, the lightning-rod issue of language--in terms
of both English acquisition and Spanish preservation--loses all its
spark. By the time they are teens, second-generation Mexican Americans
overwhelming prefer to speak English rather than Spanish, and by the
third generation most Mexican Americans no longer speak Spanish at all.

And Doug Massey presents the findings of the Mexican Migration Project, coming up with analysis that - surprise! - confounds the neo-Brimelowean hype. (It confounds me a little, too.)

Mexican immigration is not a tidal wave. The rate of undocumented
migration has not increased in over two decades. Neither is Mexico a
demographic time bomb; its fertility rate is only slightly above
replacement. Although a variety of trans-border population movements
have increased, this is to be expected in a North American economy that
is increasingly integrated under the terms of a mutually-ratified trade
agreement. Undocumented migration stems from the unwillingness of the
United States to include labor within the broader framework governing
trade and investment. Rates of migration between Mexico and the United
States are entirely normal for two countries so closely integrated
economically.

Comments

[bendover]

Is the free market on its way to "solving" the immigration "problem" ?

Firms who hire illegal immigrants sued

[bendover]

Is the free market on its way to "solving" the immigration "problem" ?

Firms who hire illegal immigrants are now being sued (according to AP news)

Damn server squirrels

[Creech]

Let's not confuse Pat B. with the facts.
That said, we still need to know who is strolling through our back door while we guard the front door by checking passports and confiscating granny's toothpaste.

[Mr. F. Le Mur]

Let's not confuse Pat B. with the facts.

Facts? Care to point out any salient facts in the article(s)?

http://opr.princeton.edu/archive/mmp/
To access these datasets please login or register as a user of the data archive.

Coy, aren't they?

[John]

There is one crucial area, however, where Mexican Americans lag behind both whites and blacks: education. This problem is well-known, although popular accounts often greatly exaggerate its magnitude by not distinguishing Mexican immigrants from U.S.-born Mexican Americans. Nonetheless, high school dropout is disturbingly prevalent for U.S.-born Mexicans, even for those in the third generation and beyond (i.e., for the U.S.-born grandchildren and later descendants of Mexican immigrants). Inevitably, college attendance and completion rates are also much lower for Mexican Americans. Because the educational disadvantage of this group largely explains their below-average earnings, finding a way to eliminate the schooling gap would go a long way toward bridging the economic divide that remains between Mexican Americans and the Anglo majority. As Rodriguez notes, the limited educational success of U.S.-born Mexicans may reflect cultural pressures to subordinate personal achievement for the sake of family unity, a social dynamic that Rodriguez aptly describes as the struggle between competing pronouns ?I? and ?we?."

It doesn't matter how many Americans their children marry. If you don't have an education, you will remain poor. Trejo as much as admits that we are creating a perminant, unskilled underclass. It is great if you want a cheap housekeeper. Not so great if you are anyone else.

[Free Republic Reader]

But on the other hand, John; if we want Mexican immigrants and their children to respect American culture, rule of law, property rights, freedom of speech and religion; we need to keep them out of pretty much every American university except BYU and the military academies.

[John]

Free Republic,

I can't really argue with you there.

[shecky]

Trejo as much as admits that we are creating a perminant, unskilled underclass.

An underclass that we enthusiastically employ to the benefit of both.

Wait a minute, we need to subsidize our own citizen perminant, unskilled underclass who are being displaced by the brown hordes.

It's amazing how new immigrants are somehow always immune to the incentives that work for everyone else, and should therefore be banished.

[John]

"It's amazing how new immigrants are somehow always immune to the incentives that work for everyone else, and should therefore be banished."

The statistics speak for themselves. If the incentives for education are so powerful, why are the drop out and educational achievment numbers for even third generation immigrants so bad?

[The Wine Commonsewer]

and by the third generation most Mexican Americans no longer speak Spanish at all.

As my father once astutely observed, unlike other ethnic groups there is always a first generation (hard workers) and a second generation (criminals and gangbangers) of Latinos/Mexicans because they never stop immigrating.

That doesn't mean I'm against immigration, just pointing out reality.

For the record, there are problems with immigration and we open-borders types know it. For example, when that gun study was out a few years ago claiming that Vancouver was safer than Seattle because of gun control, our side jumped in and said no it isn't, when you correct for the immigrant population in Seattle that Vancouver doesn't have, the gun crime rates are comparable

We'd be money ahead to acknowledge those issues and offer solutions rather than remaining in steadfast denial. If for no other reason than the entire population of the southwest thinks that we're idiots.

[Kwix]

As my father once astutely observed, unlike other ethnic groups there is always a first generation (hard workers) and a second generation (criminals and gangbangers) of Latinos/Mexicans because they never stop immigrating.

Then you get third generation assholes like Alberto Gonzales. Just sayin'...

[The Wine Commonsewer]

Kwix, you funny guy. Even if you don't hate Alberto, it's still funny.

[Kwix]

Really, can you not dedicate two minutes of hate to Alberto everyday?

[The Wine Commonsewer]

Kwix, A. Gonz is just the puppet (hydra?) head of an invasive federal government that is currently out of control. I hate it all but I recognize that all of this didn't come out of the vaccuum that is GWB's head. It's a long train runnin' and this shit dates to FDR and encompasses all of the money laundering laws, RICO, IRS reporting requirements, banking regulations, and more. So, yes I am disgusted with Gonzalez, but he's just one small bit player in a huge play. I already read the script so I know how it ends. I hate it all and I lay blame everywhere.

But what I really meant was that any individual with a sense of humour would see the laugh in your comment even if they were a stalwart Republican supporter of Gonzalez. Or maybe not.

[John]

Wine Commonsewer,

am not anti-immigration and do not believe we should close off the borders. I come across that way because of the incredible naivety of the pro-immigration posters on here. You are the first one I have seen with the common sense to admit the obvious.

[John]

Gonzalas is not so much an asshole as an idiot affirmative action baby. I hate to be politically incorrect and all, but the hard truth is that if Gonzalas were an anglo he would be chasing abulances in Dallas right now. The hypocrisy of letting a moron like that go to the top in the name of getting Mexican votes while pretending to be against affirmative action is just unbearable.

[The Wine Commonsewer]

Thanks, John.

I take a lot of flack for my pro-immigration views--got kicked around by several people last weekend at a going away party for an old friend. He's leaving specifically because he is sick of illegals. It's personal, they've pretty much destroyed his neighborhood and, of course, the usual remedies through city hall are a waste of time.

I've got the same problem next door to a rental property I own.

That's messy reality. And the people who are affected by it don't give a rat's ass about things clearing up by the third generation. They're friends with the assimilated third generation.

I might buy into Massey's argument that Mexican immigration is no greater than it was 20 years ago , but immigration from everywhere south of the border has increased in spades. You don't have to be a bean counter to notice.

I suppose noticing demographic changes makes me a racist in some people's eyes.

[Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Jesusland]

You realize, of course, that the Cato people only say all that because they're on the payroll of the Mexifornia conspirators.
I know that because I had a talk with the Lord the other day...

[Ken]

From the Washington Post this week:
"But that may understate the political costs of those entitlement claims. Over the next decade, legalized workers and their families, in addition to guest workers and theirs, would claim $24.5 billion in tax refunds through the earned income credit and child credit, $15.4 billion in Medicare and Medicaid, $5.2 billion in Social Security benefits and $3.7 billion in food stamps and child nutrition programs, the report estimates."

And John has a good point in the education. Check out the US Census' web site where they have a run down of the education levels of the foreign born. It's quite bad.

Mass immigration will mean we all will pay slightly cheaper prices for goods and services, some employers will make much loot, many native workers will be impoverished, and therefore we working stiffs will take care of them through government programs (as well as many of the immigrants themselves). This does not even include the cultural issues, such as a more statist and corrupt culture (just take a look at Mexican history)

[MUTT]

I know its unfashionable to suggest USG moves in other countries actually have consequences, and that as the "governed"part of "Government with consent of the Governed" we actually bear a lick of responsibility for What Happens Next, but I simply ask you to pop these ruminations in your "logic" or "reason" hopper, & let it digest.
The countries to the South are not "free market economies" They are everything from slightly "reformed" terror states (Guatemala, say) to "two steps above fuedalism" oligarchies. Say about everywhere else, with the exception of Nicaragua & El Salvador, which are oligarchies with a proportion of the serfs armed to the teeth. I know: the horror.
The vile round of wars launched by Carter and fed red meat by Reagan pretty much drove home the fact that any idea of social justice, land rights, meritocracy over inherited wealth & priveledge would be met by unlimited
US supplied firepower, as well as, if the stooges sink too deep, US trigger pullers. OK, meaningful reform is impossible. People aint stupid. Enough massacres, enough bodies at the dump, enough villages turned to ash, they get the message. At the same time, the southern US border got tighter. Now, rather than comin to El Norte & going home for xmas & easter, people stayed. And when they did run the border, they bought the wives & kids.....cos who knows if they could make it back & forth?
And the US Taxpayer continues to fund the oligarchs , who in turn make it impossible for honest people to feed thier families, so they flood North, where folks who supposedly oppose State interefence with private commerce (here, anyway) profit by dirt low wages & stuffing illegals, who cant sue for redress, 20 to an apartment. Opposed to Gvt intervention unless they profit thereby, ay?
Who benefits? Hmmm? Follow the goddam money,
& figure who the hell profits on either side of the wire, and ask yourself how the hell this racket A) benefits you- those stone Randians among you, and B)how that benefits society on EITHER side of the wire that isnt in the various oligarchies.
This isnt about "evening out income distribution" its about hereditary priveledge, & the priveledge exploited wealth brings. Do people here believe wealth & power are hereditary priveledge? Is Libertarianism another name for being quislings for aristocrats, or what? Jeez.