Second-generation Americans—the 20 million adult U.S.-born
children of immigrants—are substantially better off than
immigrants themselves on key measures of socioeconomic
attainment, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of
U.S. Census Bureau data. They have higher incomes; more are
college graduates and homeowners; and fewer live in poverty. In
all of these measures, their characteristics resemble those of
the full U.S. adult population. Hispanics and Asian Americans
make up about seven-in-ten of today’s adult immigrants and about
half of today’s adult second generation. Pew Research surveys
find that the second generations of both groups are much more
likely than the immigrants to speak English; to have friends and
spouses outside their ethnic or racial group, to say their group
gets along well with others, and to think of themselves as a
“typical American.” The Pew Research surveys also find that
second-generation Hispanics and Asian Americans place more
importance than does the general public on