Immigrants That Become Good Citizens

Which group of immigrants become the best American citizens? The best immigrants are not only the ones who participate in the economic system and adopt American culture. The best immigrants also participate in civic activities. They become citizens, they own homes, they enlist in the armed forces and participate fully in the system.

The study, sponsored by the Manhattan Institute, a New York think tank, used census and other data to devise an assimilation index to measure the degree of similarity between the United States' foreign-born and native-born populations. These included civic factors, such as rates of U.S. citizenship and service in the military; economic factors, such as earnings and rates of homeownership; and cultural factors, such as English ability and degree of intermarriage with U.S. citizens. The higher the number on a 100-point index, the more an immigrant resembled a U.S. citizen.

... Mexicans, for example have an index of 13, 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.

A major reason for these disparities in assimilation levels may be the high percentage of Mexican immigrants who are in the country illegally, Vigdor said. When only cultural factors are considered, Mexicans score almost as high as Vietnamese and higher than immigrants from countries such as India and China, which tend to have a high rate of immigration to the United States. __WashPost

According to the study, Vietnamese, Filipino, and Korean immigrants tend to adapt to American civic life the quickest. Cubans also assimilate quite well to civic life. Intermediate civic life adapters include Canadians, Chinese, Dominican, and Indian immigrants. Poorest of all to adapt to America's civics, are the Mexican and Salvadorean immigrants--perhaps, as suggested in the article, because such a large proportion of these are illegal.

It is well documented that Central American immigrants contribute inordinately to crime rates in their communities, perhaps again because many of these immigrants are in the country illegally in the first place.Overall, the study suggests a fairly good composite rate of assimilation in all but the Mexican immigrants. It is likely that a firm and forceful reduction of illegal immigration would place the Mexican and Central American immigrants who remain in a better light.

Read the Manhattan Institute report here.

H/T Dennis Mangan