Haya El Nasser, USA TODAY, March 4, 2008
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[Nancy] Cadavid’s tale is more than an immigrant success story. It reflects the path that immigrants increasingly are taking after they first enter the country—legally or illegally. Her moves eventually landed Cadavid—now a U.S. citizen—in a suburban county, well ensconced in middle-class America.
The movement of the foreign-born after they arrive sheds light on a key issue in the national immigration dialogue: How quickly immigrants assimilate into American culture and progress from a transient population to one that pays taxes, achieves homeownership and becomes largely self-sufficient.
Traditionally, newcomers settled in urban enclaves teeming with immigrants who shared their language and culture. They didn’t spread out much until their children grew up and moved away.
That’s still the case in some urban areas.
However, a growing number of immigrants are settling in suburbia as soon as they arrive, adding diversity to once largely homogeneous areas—and sometimes triggering tension among residents who are jarred by the impact of immigrants on their neighborhoods.
Other immigrants are moving to places that haven’t seen immigrants in almost 100 years, such as rural counties in the South and Midwest.
The newcomers’ move to the suburbs is telling, analysts say. “A good portion of the movement to outer suburbs within a region reflects a movement up the (economic) ladder,” says Audrey Singer, an immigration specialist at the Brookings Institution.
Today, many “immigrants in America are pre-assimilated,” adds Dowell Myers, a demographer at the University of Southern California. “They know a lot about America before they come, and many know English, also. . . . Economically, they’re flourishing more rapidly now than they did at the turn of the (20th) century.”
How quickly immigrants assimilate depends on what measure is used—from English-speaking skills and education to employment.
Homeownership is one of the most widely used characteristics of success. About 68% of immigrants who arrived in the 1970s are homeowners—equal to the rate of natives.
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Homeownership among Hispanic immigrants is about double that of low-income immigrants of the past, [Myers] says.
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“The ones who came in the ’80s actually made faster progress than the ones who came in the ’70s, but not as fast as the ones who came in the ’60s,” says Jeffrey Passel, demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center.
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Spreading out
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It took 60 years for poorly educated immigrants, such as the Italians who came at the turn of the last century, to reach income and educational parity with natives, [, [Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies]] says. A century later, conditions have changed and comparisons are difficult [he] says. “This is a much bigger group” of immigrants.
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Original article
(Posted on March 5, 2008)
Comments
Just dreadful. Think of all the wonderful communities being destroyed by this madness.
Posted by Suburban Refugee at 6:01 PM on March 5
Most likely they don’t want to live around the black underclass. Still, what a puff piece of journalism. No wonder given the byline.
Posted by Civilized Neighbor at 6:03 PM on March 5
Based on my experiences, immigrants don’t move out into the suburbs because they’ve become assimilated. Rather, the inner city regions which were occupied by immigrants have become so depressing that the immigrants are lured to the white suburbs, which are so much more appealing (gee, I wonder why?). Then the suburbs start to deteriorate, so the whites move out again. Eventually, the immigrants will want to leave the suburbs too.
Posted by Matt at 6:13 PM on March 5
“Today, many “immigrants in America are pre-assimilated,” adds Dowell Myers, a demographer at the University of Southern California. “They know a lot about America before they come, and many know English, also… . Economically, they’re flourishing more rapidly now than they did at the turn of the (20th) century.”
I feel better already. Our displacement is coming along nicely, complete with “pre-Americans” just needing a ride over here. The elite should have their new people in place by the middle of the century.
Posted by idareya at 6:14 PM on March 5
Section 8 housing brings more refugees to suburban areas of Pittsburgh,Pa.,I have seen Hmong,Mexican,Chinese,Haitian,people wandering the streets of my suburban neighborhood,very unsure of street signs,and how to conduct themselves here,they will never assimilate,and add nothing to our society,multiculturalism spreads to destroy our country,one neighborhood at a time!
Posted by at 6:59 PM on March 5
Yes it took the Italians so long to reach income and educational parity of the natives because there was no help from the government.
Posted by at 7:04 PM on March 5
I don’t live in a suburb but a sort of pseudo-suburb in the city. We’re being inundated by hispanics desperate to flee hispanics living in the crime and drug ridden hispanic west side.
As a matter of fact, a small cottage industry has arisen. We have a business that opened that rents apartments and homes to hispanics. Of course, it would be discriminatory to cater exclusively to hispanics but the sign on the door saying ‘we speak spanish’ tells you all you need to know about the clientele. That and all the cars and vans parked on the sidewalk out front with Puerto Rican flags hanging from the rear view mirrors.
Posted by sbuffalonative at 8:07 PM on March 5
This article is so obsolete and clueless as to be rendered of little anecdotal value. Home ownership means nothing in today’s world of no doc sub-prime mortgages and “jingle mail”. It has been easier to “own” than to rent in terms of barriers to entrance. Indeed suburbia, in the South, has long been attractive to immigrants at the low end of the income scale. Two wage earning daddies, two wage earning mamas, la suegra, and six kids in a four bedroom two and a half bath $175K house in a small Southern city has long been “no problema”.
Posted by Flaxen-headed Strumpet at 8:33 PM on March 5
I remember how horribly tough it was to get a house in Southern California—in former pre-illegal alien, pre subprime mortgage days. As I said, the illusions in this nation, are going to come to an end sooner than later.
Posted by Bobby at 10:11 PM on March 5
It took 60 years for poorly educated immigrants, such as the Italians who came at the turn of the last century, to reach income and educational parity with natives, [, [Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies]] says. A century later, conditions have changed and comparisons are difficult [he] says. “This is a much bigger group” of immigrants.
And Italians from the last century were not given free medical care when they were new to the country and could not afford it. There were not jobs which offered work for those who were bilingual in both Italian and English. Schools also didn’t offer English as a second language to their children. Hispanics enjoy benefits that European immigrants could never have even begun to dream of.
Posted by at 12:10 AM on March 6
Enforcement is an all-or-nothing deal. Enforce immigration laws in the cities, the suburbs, and the rural areas. Anywhere they are not strictly and consistently enforced will become a haven.
Posted by Dark-Star at 10:37 AM on March 6
“However, a growing number of immigrants are settling in suburbia as soon as they arrive, adding diversity to once largely homogeneous areas—and sometimes triggering tension among residents who are jarred by the impact of immigrants on their neighborhoods.”
I don’t understand. I thought diversity was just wonderful.
Posted by at 2:13 PM on March 6
Dowell Myers, whom I actually met at conferences a couple times, is a fool. The fact that someone knows a few things about American culture doesn’t meant they’re “pre-assimilated.” The nineteen 9/11 hijackers were well-versed in our culture. That didn’t stop them from being terrorists when their sense of Muslim duty called.
I resent the idea that we’re all part of one glorious international hip-hop, i-Pod carrying ecumenical mega-culture. We have a right to determine how many get into our country and why. Nations still matter.
Posted by seeker at 3:06 PM on March 6
The use of the word diversity in this article is a typical PC codeword that is meant to conjure up a world free of racism, all people of all colours working together holding hands and singing Kumbaya, lalalalalala.
In realistic terms, the good side of diversity is basically ethnic cuisine (not that you would eat at a place that had third-world hygiene standards). The inconvenient truth and inevitable outcomes of gangs, crime, higher taxation, lowered public services, lowered property values, lowered educational standards, wage collapse etc etc etc are never acknowledged in an amazing feat of intellectual dishonesty.
Posted by ODDL at 3:18 PM on March 6
Mexican’s weird tolorance for living 20 to 30 in a house means they can afford to rent or even buy houses in nicer neighborhoods and live among normal people. Code enforcement in most towns and cities can’t keep up with these zoning violations, so they can essentially act as they please, parking far too many cars on the streets, parking in the lawn, and littering. It makes life intolerable for neighbors, who are forced to move.
Posted by at 2:21 AM on March 7
On the subject of home owning. I am chaffed by the fact that in most countries, a foreign citizen CANNOT OWN PROPERTY in that country without a “Sponsor” owning 51% at least of the property or business. I suggest thatif a U.S. citizen cannot own property in a given country, then citizens of that country cannot own property in our country. And close the loophole of tose citizens controlling property via marriage to a U.S. female by stripping her of her right to own property also.
Posted by Skip at 3:47 AM on March 7
Here is Southern California I have noticed the Hispanics are in fact moving into houses instead of Apartments. The Apartment complexes have been Hispanizied and are now overcrowded and crime ridden.
The People moving into suburbia are young men and usually have about 6-10 people in the house. Since there is not that much room in the house, they are always out front, this is very strange for this area, we never have men just hanging out in the front lawn, staring at people as they walk or drive by. As I drove by one of these houses, they had the garage door open, and sure enough it was filled with beds.
These “clown houses” as they are called (picture the old clown cars filled with a impossible amount of clowns crammed in them)
are now springing up everywhere, we did get one shut down because they were selling drugs.
It is sad to witness this decline, and our so called leaders who will do nothing about the growing problem.
Posted by mhb at 10:53 AM on March 7
Translated = Non-whites will follow whites wherever they go.
Whites move out of the large cities to get away from non-whites.
Whites can run but can’t hide.
Posted by Dennis at 12:40 PM on March 7
More than half of the people in America now live in suburbs. Thus, the stereotype that the suburbs are a refuge for successful white people is a myth and it is getting less true by the day. As a matter of fact, some urban areas that have seen influxes of whites in recent years are actually safer, more attractive places to live than some of the blackened/browned suburbs. With the rising price of gas, wealthy whites might end up leaving the sprawling suburbs even faster.
The point is that demographics are more important than anything else. It doesn’t matter how a city is constructed; what really matters is the kind of people living in an area.
Posted by RSJ at 2:04 PM on March 7
“The inconvenient truth and inevitable outcomes of gangs, crime, higher taxation, lowered public services, lowered property values, lowered educational standards, wage collapse etc etc etc are never acknowledged in an amazing feat of intellectual dishonesty.”
Posted by ODDL at 3:18 PM on March 6
Bingo. Well stated, ODDL.
What is exceptionally telling is the fact that the wage depression issue doesn’t get mentioned by the open-borders proponents on the LEFT. This is most ironic, since it is the left that vociferously claims to be the champion of the working class.
I would argue that a hard-line conservative like Tom Tancredo cares more about the little guy than a “bleeding-heart” plutocrat liberal like Ted Kennedy. Their respective policies on immigration prove my point.
Posted by Old Victorian at 6:33 PM on March 7
This article is so obsolete and clueless as to be rendered of little anecdotal value.
Posted by Flaxen-headed Strumpet
True. This is nothing new. I happen to have before me an article saved from the NY Times Metro Section, dated March 10, 2001, “Newest Immigrants Head Straight to New Jersey’s Suburbs”.
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[excerpted]
The Jersey suburbs, they’re not just about the Sopranos anymore. Not now that the Patels , the Amins, the Ngs, the Maleks and many other newcomers have moved into the raised ranch on the half-acre lot next door. Among the most vivid threads in the New Jersey census statistics are stark figures on the diversification of the suburbs, particularly here in the boom belt within commuting distance of the electronics, pharmaceutical and medical industries of central New Jersey. The blizzard of numbers from the census tell of a new kind of immigrant, the educated, high-achieving striver who skips the traditional urban gateways. Before, they would live in an apartment in Newark or Jersey City. But now they all know English and computers, and right away they get high-paying jobs and go straight to the suburbs to look for a house.
At Monmouth Junction Elementary School, nearly 23% of the students are Asian, yet fewer than 1% classify as non-English speakers. Diversity has become so much the norm at South Brunswick schools that it is no longer even grounds for comment. “Ten or 15 years ago we would have diversity celebration events because diversity was still a big thing. But it just isn’t anymore. The big thing now is mingling.”
Posted by browser at 9:42 PM on March 7
