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Children of immigrants have higher rates of upward mobility than US-born

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Re: Children of immigrants have higher rates of upward mobility than US-born

#2
Title editorialized from "Intergenerational Mobility of Immigrants in the US over Two Centuries"

Abstract:

>Using millions of father-son pairs spanning more than 100 years of US history, we find that children of immigrants from nearly every sending country have higher rates of upward mobility than children of the US-born. Immigrants’ advantage is similar historically and today despite dramatic shifts in sending countries and US immigration policy. In the past, this advantage can be explained by immigrants moving to areas with better prospects for their children and by “under-placement” of the first generation in the income distribution. These findings are consistent with the “American Dream” view that even poorer immigrants can improve their children’s prospects.

Re: Children of immigrants have higher rates of upward mobility than US-born

#4
This reminds of a line from 30 Rock by Jack Donaghy:

"Diversity is the engine that drives this country. We are an immigrant nation! The first generation works their fingers to the bone making things, the next generation goes to college and innovates new ideas, the third generation... snowboards and takes improv classes."

Feels like one of those things that we all thought was true.

Re: Children of immigrants have higher rates of upward mobility than US-born

#5
Immigrants are frequently working below what you'd expect of similarly talented/skilled/educated (especially if you exclude consideration of English language fluency) native born, so it's not really surprising that their children do better by comparison to them than the children of the native born.

Re: Children of immigrants have higher rates of upward mobility than US-born

#6

This reminds of a line from 30 Rock by Jack Donaghy: "Diversity is the engine that drives this country. We are an immigrant nation! The first generation works their fingers to the bone making things, the next generation goes to college and innovates new ideas, the third generation... snowboards and takes improv classes." Feels like one of those things that we all thought was true.

That echoes the three generation rule of wealth: http://www.honolulumagazine.com/Live-Wellthy/October-2018/Wh...

Re: Children of immigrants have higher rates of upward mobility than US-born

#8
post #7

How much of this is attributable to immigrants clustering in highly productive urban areas?

Quoting the study "Geographic choices were important: first-generation immigrants were more likely to settle in areas with higher mobility prospects for their children. When we compare children growing up in the same US region, the intergenerational gap between immigrants and the US-born is reduced by 70%. When comparing children growing up in the same county, we no longer find an intergenerational gap between the children of immigrants and US-born individuals. In other words, immigrant children did not earn more than others who grew up in the same location. Rather, their parents chose to live in locations that offered high mobility prospects to all."

Re: Children of immigrants have higher rates of upward mobility than US-born

#9

I suspect that parents who "achieve" by coming to the U.S. are more likely to have children of the same persuasion.

People with enough gumption to upend their lives and leave everything they knew behind for an uncertain future … it's the "right stuff"

Re: Children of immigrants have higher rates of upward mobility than US-born

#10

Immigrants are frequently working below what you'd expect of similarly talented/skilled/educated (especially if you exclude consideration of English language fluency) native born, so it's not really surprising that their children do better by comparison to them than the children of the native born.

The immigration process itself contains a huge selection bias. Immigrating to America is not an easy process; it's long, confusing and intended to dissuade all but the most persistent of people. Given that, I would expect to find that people who immigrate in general are more intelligent and hard working than an average person.
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