Linda Chavez: Immigrants moving briskly to better U.S. lives

This opinion piece shows how immigrants are quickly assimilating. Even though many others say they are not and never will. - - Donna Poisl

by Linda Chavez

For the first time in decades, the number of foreign-born individuals living in the United States declined last year, according to new numbers released by the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. The reason for the tiny decline – from 12.6 percent of the U.S. population to 12.5 percent – may have less to do with tougher border enforcement effectively keeping out illegal immigrants than it does with a shrinking economy making the country a less enticing destination.

But what about those who remain? The greatest passion generated during immigration debates over the past few years has concerned illegal immigration, but many people also have voiced fears that Hispanic immigrants, even those who came legally, are somehow different from all previous immigrants and never will move into the American mainstream.

Contrary to the impression that Hispanics remain poor no matter how long they've lived in the U.S., upward mobility is still the rule, not the exception.
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