The New Second Generation at the Turn of the New Century: Europeans and non-Europeans in the US labour market
At the turn of the twenty-first century, more immigrants resided in the United States than at any time in the nation's history. Whereas in the past, most immigrants came from Europe, the bulk of the influx has recently come from Asia and Latin America. This chapter shows that the addition of non-Europeans to the American melting pot has wrought some changes in the traditional ‘assimilation tale’. Ceteris paribus, at the turn of the new century, first-generation non-Europeans do not do as well as their European counterparts. On the other hand, most of the second-generation non-European groups do as well as native-born white people. Most ethnic minorities are vulnerable to unemployment, some face hardships in occupational attainment, and a few incur earnings deficits within occupational categories. In general, women fare better than men, and the second generation better than both the first and the third. The one second-generation group in difficulty is Mexicans, but there is an important gender difference here. Both second- and third-generation Mexican women encounter fewer labour-market difficulties than their male counterparts.