Transformations : The Post-Immigrant Generation in an Age of Diversity / Ruben G. Rumbaut.

This paper examines the latest results of the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (CILS), a multifaceted investigation of the educational performance, and social, cultural, and psychological adaptation of children of immigrants. Since late 1991, the study has followed the progress of a sizable sample of teenage youths representing 77 nationalities in 2 areas of high immigrant population, San Diego (California) and Miami and Fort Lauderdale (Florida). The original study interviewed over 2,500 eighth and ninth graders, children of immigrants or immigrants themselves. This study summarizes the results of the latest survey, in 1995-96. The subjects come from widely varied families with many differing characteristics. Over 90% of these children of immigrants report speaking a language other than English with their parents, but they are demonstrating a rapid shift in language use and preference, with increasing fluency in English. A pattern of rapid linguistic assimilation is consistent across nationalities and socioeconomic levels. There is also a growing ethnic awareness among these children, as they are more likely to experience racial or ethnic discrimination as they grow older. They are ambitious, and less likely to drop out of school than other students. In addition, at every grade level the children of immigrants outperform school district norms, although the gap narrows over time and grade level. Predictors of academic achievement are discussed for immigrant children. Overall, the CILS results throw additional light on the adaptational changes that children of immigrants confront in their passages to adulthood. In spite of these challenges, the overall pattern is one of noteworthy achievement. An appendix compares the East Coast and West Coast populations. (Contains 8 tables and 33 references.) (SLD)

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