Tracking Intergenerational Progress for Immigrant Groups: The Problem of Ethnic Attrition

Historically, much of the socioeconomic mobility achieved by US immigrant families has taken place across rather than within generations. For example, previous waves of predominantly unskilled immigrants, such as the Italians and Irish, enjoyed substantial intergenerational progress that ultimately enabled their descendants to join the economic mainstream of American society, but this process took at least two or three generations to unfold (Lisa J. Neidert and Reynolds Farley 1985; Joel Perlmann 2005). There is considerable skepticism, however, that the processes of assimilation and adaptation will operate similarly for the predominantly nonwhite immigrants who have entered the United States in increasing numbers over the past several decades. Indeed, Samuel P. Huntington (2004) voices a particularly strong version of such skepticism with regard to Hispanic immigration. When assessing the long-term economic integration and impact of immigrants, it is therefore important to analyze differences not just between the foreign-born and US-born, but also, when possible, across generations of the US-born (James P. Smith 2006). In tracking generational progress for the descendants of immigrants, common practice is to use self-reported race/ethnicity to approximate the national origins of immigrant groups, especially for individuals beyond the first generation (e.g., a second-generation Hispanic is someone born in the United States who identifies as Hispanic and has a foreign-born parent). An Tracking Intergenerational Progress for Immigrant Groups: The Problem of Ethnic Attrition