Most U.S. Hispanic Kids Have Immigrant Parents

Census numbers are showing that 52% of Latino children in this country are children born to immigrant parents. - - Donna Poisl

By N.C. Aizenman, Washington Post Staff Writer

A majority of Hispanic children are now U.S.-born children of immigrants, primarily Mexicans who came to this country in an immigration wave that began about 1980, according to a report released yesterday.

The analysis of census data by the nonpartisan, Washington-based Pew Hispanic Center charts a substantial demographic shift among the nation's 16 million Hispanic children, who constitute one of the fastest growing child populations in the United States and account for more than one of five U.S. children. As recently as 1980, nearly six of 10 Latino children were in the third generation or higher, meaning that their parents, and often their grandparents and great-grandparents, were native-born U.S. citizens. Only three of 10 were in the second generation -- born in the United States to parents who immigrated.

Now those U.S.-born children of Latino immigrants account for 52 percent of all Latino children, according to the study.
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