Cultural Identity and Adaptation of Immigrant Child, Essay Example

Alejandro Portes and Ruben Rumbaut are one of the most highly respected sociologists who study first and second generation immigrants. “They realize it is the new arrivals’ children that set the pace for our future.” (Jacoby, 2002).  It is the successes and failures of the second generation that will set the mold for particular ethnic groups whilst determining patterns that will last for generations to come. Portes and Rubaut conducted a study on second generation immigrants which comprised 5,300 teenagers in Miami and San Diego. This project was known as the Children of Longitudinal Study (CLS). The families studied were from hard-working middle-class families. It was found that their children often “flirt with minority groups and carry themselves in underclass ways.” (Jacoby, 2002). On the positive side it was found that the ninth and twelfth grade students overall work harder to achieve success in their studies than do the first generation immigrants and American born generation of teenagers. Most students studied an average of two hours a night as compared to other children studying simply thirty minutes a night. These second generation immigrant teenagers have greater aspirations to achieve better for a better future, have between a third and half less dropout rate in high school and believe hard and diligent work can overcome any obstacle in their way. Statistics show nine out of ten second generation children can speak a foreign language at home and 98% are fluent in English by the time they graduate from high school. Statistics further show 88% prefer to speak their mother tongue when they are at home. They are well out performing their parents and well exceeding the statistics. Portes and Rumbaut believe the key to a second generation child’s success is growing up in an ethnic community that provides an umbrella nurtured by old-country traditions and customs whilst implementing new American values.

References

Jacoby, T. (2002) The Immigrant Second Generation Retrieved October 23, 2010 from, http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=127&subid=170&contentid=250096

Heckathorn, D. (2006) Studying Second-Generation Immigrants: Methodological Challenges and Innovative Solutions Retrieved October 23, 2010 from, http://www.migrationinformation.org/usfocus/display.cfm?ID=441

Kasintz, P. Second Generation Immigrants Retrieved October 23, 2010 from, http://www.urbanresearch.org/projects/second-generation-immigrants

Brown, T. (1997) The Children of Immigrants-How Do They Fare? Retrieved October 23, 2010 from, http://www.economica.ca/ew02_2p4.htm

Second Generation Immigrants in Europe are Deassimilating Retrieved October 23, 2010 from, http://super-economy.blogspot.com/2010/10/second-generation-immigrants-in-europe.html

Kasintz, P. Inheriting the City: The Children of Immigrants Come of Age Retrieved October 23, 2010 from, http://www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/issues/volume14/ej54/ej54r8/

Aydemir, A. (2006) First and Second Generation Immigrant Educational Attainment and Labor Market Outcomes: A Comparison of the United States and Canada Retrieved October 23, 2010 from, http://ftp.iza.org/dp2298.pdf

Amit, K. (2010) Socioeconomic Integration of Second Generation Immigrants in Israel: Examining Alternative Ethnic Classifications Retrieved October 23, 2010 from, http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a919801215~db=all~jumptype=rss

Second Generation Immigrants Doing Well-Study in New York City Retrieved October 23, 2010 from, http://www.workingimmigrants.com/2008/05/second_generation_immigrants_d.html

Johnson, A. (2008) Children of Immigrants Reshaping America Retrieved October 23, 2010 from, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27106772/