What you need to know about the new census numbers on Hispanic births

What you need to know about the new census numbers on Hispanic births
- May 21, 2012
- Research by Frank D. Bean, sociology Chancellor's Professor and Center for Research on Immigration, Population and Public Policy director, and Ruben Rumbaut, sociology professor, is featured by Time Ideas May 21, 2012
From Time:
This past week, results from the U.S. Census Bureau showing that whites now account
for less than half of all births made front-page news. Most of this demographic shift
away from our nation’s Eurocentric heritage is being driven by Hispanics, whose median
age is younger than that of whites and who tend to have more children than white adults
do. I suspect this data has gotten much attention because of concerns that it represents
a threat to our identity as a nation, but it actually signals a blending of culture
and lineage as much as anything else... Then there is the question of language. The
concern here is that Hispanic communities will not assimilate and that native English
speakers will therefore be disadvantaged. But research has not borne this out. Scholars
Rubén Rumbaut, Douglas Massey and Frank Bean have found that Hispanics quickly assimilate
linguistically to English. Recent immigrants commonly speak Spanish, of course, but
that drops to 35% fluent Spanish speakers among the second generation, then to 17%
in the third generation and 5% in the fourth.
For the full story, please visit http://ideas.time.com/2012/05/21/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-cen...
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