Immigrant Children and The American Project

By Carola Suárez-Orozco and Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco

As we face the largest wave of immigration in the history of the United States, much attention has been focused on its economic and policy implications. This focus, while important, can be limiting. In the final analysis, if that is ever possible in this field, the economic implications of large-scale immigration turn out to be marginal. The U.S. economy is so large, powerful, and dynamic that most responsible economists do not think immigration will either "make or break" it. The recent public concern about immigration seems, therefore, out of proportion to its importance for our economy. We must conclude that the intensity of public concern reveals more deep-seated, personal anxieties.

We suspect that these anxieties have to do with the demographic and cultural implications of a wave of immigration made up largely of non-European, non- English-speaking people of color migrating in large numbers from Asia, the Caribbean, and Latin America. Many concerns are being raised—some vehemently and others quite reasonably. What will this wave of immigration do to the culture of our nation? What will the ethos of the country "feel like" by the mid-21st century, when the children of today's immigrants and other racial minorities constitute nearly half of its population? And the bottom line: Will the country suffer or be better off because of this historic shift?

While important policy questions need to be addressed, such as how many immigrants the United States should accept each year, what kinds of publicly funded services they can access, and how to stem continuing waves of undocumented immigration, in some respects much of this debate is academic. The proverbial horse is out of the barn, and closing the door now, even if it would be symbolically satisfying to some, will in...