Back to the Future

MEXICAN immigrants like it in America. They are much more likely than other immigrants to rate life in the United States as superior to life in the country where they were born, according to survey research by Public Agenda in 2003. They come to work: They are much less likely than other immigrants to cite political freedom as the reason for their migration. They show near zero interest in radical politics: Aside from a few loony college professors, the mystic cause of reuniting the southwestern United States to Mexico seems to excite almost nobody. They crossed the desert to escape Mexico, not to rejoin it. Whatever is going on, it isn’t a Reconquista.

So . . . good news, right? Assimilation is working? Not exactly. Mexican immigrants may like America, but they are having serious trouble joining it. Well into the second and third generations after arrival, they remain much poorer than other Americans.

MEXICAN immigrants like it in America. They are much more likely than other immigrants to rate life in the United States as superior to life in the country where they were born, according to survey research by Public Agenda in 2003. They come to work: They are much less likely than other immigrants to cite political freedom as the reason for their migration. They show near zero interest in radical politics: Aside from a few loony college professors, the mystic cause of reuniting the southwestern United States to Mexico seems to excite almost nobody. They crossed the desert to escape Mexico, not to rejoin it. Whatever is going on, it isn’t a Reconquista.

So . . . good news, right? Assimilation is working? Not exactly. Mexican immigrants may like America, but they are having serious trouble joining it. Well into the second and third generations after arrival, they remain much poorer than other Americans.