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Feb. 8, 2013
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Jewish World Review
April 17, 2009
/ 23 Nissan 5769
Supporting Family Values
By
Linda Chavez
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
A new report out this week from the Pew Hispanic Center confirms what
many observers already suspected about the illegal immigrant population
in the United States: It is made up increasingly of intact families and
their American-born children. Nearly half of illegal immigrant
households consist of two-parent families with children, and 73 percent
of these children were born here and are therefore U.S. citizens.
The hard-line immigration restrictionists will, no doubt, find more
cause for alarm in these numbers. But they should represent hope to the
rest of us. One of the chief social problems afflicting this country is
the breakdown in the traditional family. But among immigrants, the
two-parent household is alive and well.
Only 21 percent of native households are made up of two parents living
with their own children. Among legal immigrants, the percentage of such
households jumps to 35 percent. But among the illegal population, 47
percent of households consist of a mother, a father and their children.
Age accounts for the major difference in household composition between
the native and foreign-born populations: Immigrants, especially illegal
immigrants, tend to be younger, while the native population includes
large numbers of older Americans whose children have already left home.
But out-of-wedlock births and divorce, which are more common among the
native born especially blacks, but also Hispanics and whites also
mean that even young native households with children are more likely to
be headed by single women than immigrant households are.
But the greater concern for some opponents of immigration legal and
illegal is the fear that these newcomers will never fully adapt,
won't learn English, will remain poor and uneducated, and transform the
United States into a replica of Mexico or some other Latin American
country. The same fears led Americans of the mid-19th century to fear
German and Irish immigrants, and in the early 20th century to fear
Italians, Jews, Poles, and others from Eastern and Southern Europe.
Such worries are no more rational today or born out of actual
evidence than they were a hundred years ago. It is true that Hispanic
immigrants today take awhile to catch up with the native born just as
their European predecessors did, and illegal immigrants never fully do
so in terms of education or earnings. But there is still some room for
optimism in the Pew Hispanic report. Nearly half of illegal immigrants
between the ages of 18-24 who have graduated from high school attend
college. A surprising 25 percent of illegal immigrant adults have at
least some college, with 15 percent having completed college.
And although earnings among illegal immigrants are lower than among
either the native population or legal immigrants, they are far from
destitute. The median household income for illegal immigrants was
$36,000 in 2007 compared with $50,000 for native-born households. And
illegal immigrant males have much higher labor force participation rates
than the native born, 94 percent compared with 83 percent for U.S.-born
males.
The inflow of illegal immigrants has slowed substantially since the
peak, which occurred during the economic boom of the late 1990s, not in
recent years, contrary to popular but uninformed opinion. The Pew
Hispanic Center estimates there are nearly 12 million illegal immigrants
living in the U.S. now, a number that has stabilized over the last few
years as a result both of better border enforcement and the declining
job market. As a result, there might never be a better time to grapple
with what to do about this population than right now.
The fact that so many illegal immigrants are intertwined with American
citizens or legal residents, either as spouses or parents, should give
pause to those who'd like to see all illegal immigrants rounded up and
deported or their lives made so miserable they leave on their own. A
better approach would allow those who have made their lives here,
established families, bought homes, worked continuously and paid taxes
to remain after paying fines, demonstrating English fluency, and proving
they have no criminal record. Such an approach is as much about
supporting family values as it is granting amnesty.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Linda Chavez is President of the Center for Equal Opportunity. Her latest book is "Betrayal: How Union Bosses Shake Down Their Members and Corrupt American Politics". (Click HERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR.)
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