The mixed economic progress of immigrants

by Robert F. Schoeni

In the midst of large increases in immigration, a relative deterioration in the level of education of immigrants, and slow employment growth, the question of how immigrants perform and progress economically in the United States has once more become salient. This report addresses this question in several unique ways. First, it examines in detail the differences in the rate of economic progress of immigrants from different countries of origin (rather than for all immigrants as a whole) and identifies the reasons for these differences. Second, and for the first time, it assesses whether the economic progress of recent immigrants is slower than that of previous generations of immigrants. Finally, it assesses the economic progress of immigrants in California separately from that of those in the rest of the nation, because, at 26 percent, the share of immigrants in California's labor force is more than three times higher than that in the rest of the United States.^ Japanese, Korean, and Chin