Should We Worry About Immigrant Assimilation and Education?

Yes, they are important to our future!unable to learn the computers wellenough for these
Many of tomorrow's workers and business ownershigh tech jobs because of their age or their own
are the children of today'simmigrants. More than 40%educationshortcomings.
of the growth of our labor force in the late 1990sImmigrants' children who have dropped out of school
wasdue to immigrants, and since immigration WILLand have no training in thesehigh-tech positions will
continue, they are important to ourfuture growth.have the same problem. Immigrants with limited skills
A concern is certainly that many of today's Hispanicwillalways work at whatever job they can find; this
Latino immigrants areuneducated and unskilled: thisprobably means they will alwayswork at low paying
could mean that their children will not fit intojobs and never get out of poverty. If they are
ourknowledge-based and high-tech economy. Oftenforced to raise theirown children in poverty, the cycle
when parents are uneducated,they have lowercontinues.
expectations and don't encourage their children toOnce they are fluent in English and learn U.S. laws,
stay in highschool and go on to college. Thesethey have a much greater chanceof getting better
parents very often need their children to work inthejobs, although the wage gap between them and
shops they own or contribute to the householdpeople born heremay still be quite wide.
income with outside jobs. Manyof their children mustUndocumented Hispanic teens who are in our public
drop out of high school to help the family surviveschools may have lowereducational aspirations and
financially.not try to finish high school, even when their parents
Twenty five percent of the children under the agedonot need their income. They often feel
of six in the U.S. are children ofimmigrants, thediscouraged because they don't think theycan get a
majority in poor families. If these children went tocollege education, or if they do get one, that they
preschool, itwould dramatically change their lives,won't be eligible to workhere.
especially if there were also some servicesavailableSome states are allowing undocumented students
for their parents. If these parents could go to nearbywho have attended and graduatedfrom their high
ESL classes and learnsome tips on early child rearing,schools to attend public state colleges at in-state
and be shown how important it is for their childrentorates. If theseteens have lived in that state for
get an education, it would help tremendously in theyears, have received a good education in
children's later public schoolyears.thoseschools and have graduated, why shouldn't they
Children who get preschool education are much morebe allowed to continue theireducation there without
likely to do well in school andless likely to drop out orpaying the higher non-resident rates?
get into trouble. This is true for immigrant childrenIf they gradute from college, they should be able to
andany other children who are living in poverty.apply for citizenship and usetheir degree to get a high
It would be wonderful if all parents could get somepaying job in this country. These workers will
of this training, but poor parentsneed it most,contributeto their community, start businesses, buy
especially if they don't speak English at home or ifhouses and be wonderful Americans. Themoney that
they don't havemuch education themselves.was spent by the state to educate them to grade
Blue-collar jobs are on the decline in many parts of12 will be repaid manytimes over.
the U.S. Factories and textilemills are closing andWe need skilled and highly trained workers, why
moving to other countries, shocking many peoplewould we want these kids to stoptheir schooling and
who wereborn here and have worked in thesebe forced to work in low paying jobs the rest of
factories for decades. Money is often spenttheir lives? Thatdoes not help any of us.
tore-educate these workers, yet many of them are