Mexicans Are the Most Successful Immigrants
*Mexicans are, in fact, the most successful immigrants when you take their starting point into account. Success, in this case, is measured by the road traveled and not by the place you finish. Other immigrant groups reach higher levels in general, vis-a-vis jobs and income, but they had advantages to begin with. VL
By Jennifer Lee, TIME
The narrative of the American Dream is one of upward mobility, but there are some stories of mobility we prize above others.
Who is more successful: a Mexican-American whose parents immigrated to the U.S. with less than an elementary school education, and who now works as a dental hygienist? Or a Chinese-American whose parents immigrated to the U.S. and earned Ph.D. degrees, and who now works as a doctor?
[pullquote]In Los Angeles, over 60 percent of Chinese immigrant fathers and over 40 percent of Chinese immigrant mothers have a bachelor’s degree or higher. In turn, their children benefit from their parents’ human and financial capital, giving them a boost in their quest to get ahead.[/pullquote]Amy Chua (AKA “Tiger Mom”) and her husband Jed Rubenfeld, author of the new book The Triple Package, claim it’s the latter. They argue that certain American groups (including Chinese, Jews, Cubans, and Nigerians) are more successful and have risen further than others because they share certain cultural traits. Chua and Rubenfeld bolster their argument by comparing these groups’ median household income, test scores, educational attainment, and occupational status to those of the rest of the country.
But what happens if you measure success not just by where people end up—the cars in their garages, the degrees on their walls—but by taking into account where they started?
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[Photo by Vincent Diamante/Flickr]
