The children of immigrants continue a journey begun by their parents. Born or raised in the U.S., this second generation now includes over 20 million individuals. In their new RSF book Origins and Destinations, immigration scholars Renee Luthra (University of Essex), Thomas Soehl (McGill University), and Roger Waldinger (University of California, Los Angeles) examine the socioeconomic outcomes of second generation immigrants through a new theoretical framework that accounts for both their countries of origin and their destinations in the U.S.
Using surveys of second generation immigrant adults in New York and Los Angeles, the authors assess the contexts of both emigration and immigration to understand the divergent trajectories of the second generation. They show that disparities between immigrant children of different national-origin groups stem partly from the different value orientations of their origin countries. For instance, schooling is higher among immigrant children from more secular societies (South Korea) than among those from more religious ones (the Philippines). At the same time, immigration laws favor some groups over others. When immigrant groups enter the U.S. through a welcoming door, as opposed to one that makes authorized status difficult to achieve, immigrant children achieve higher education and better jobs. In looking at disparities in educational attainment and political participation among immigrant offspring of the same national-origin group, the authors find that factors such as a family’s legal status upon arrival, whether they became naturalized citizens and how long that process took, and the extent to which they maintain ties to their country of origin all affect second-generation trajectories. By disentangling the sources of diversity among the adult children of immigrants, Origins and Destinations provides a new understanding of the growing second generation.
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