Collaborative Research: The Second Generation in Early Adulthood: A Decade-Long Panel Study

这项拟议的研究将分析第二代移民在美国成年早期的适应过程。今天，移民子女占21岁及以下美国年轻人的近四分之一，是这一人口中增长最快的部分。第二代移民对美国社会的经济、社会和文化适应的成败，将对当今移民人口集中的城市和地区产生重要影响。这项研究将根据专门为此目的收集的数据，审查成人适应过程的实际结果。这些数据来自刚刚完成的移民子女纵向研究(CILS)第三次调查，这是迄今为止专注于移民第二代的最大研究项目。CILS始于1992年，对迈阿密/福特郡8年级和9年级的5,266名移民子女进行了调查。并在1995-96年高中毕业时对这些学生进行了跟踪调查，并对50%的移民父母进行了调查。最近完成的跟踪调查将最初的样本追溯到成年早期，平均年龄为24岁，包括关于成人结果的详细数据，如教育、就业、职业状况、配偶/伴侣的种族、目前的家庭状况、监禁、青少年母亲身份、福利依赖以及其他向下同化、投票、政治偏好、公民行为、民族和种族认同以及对美国社会认同的其他指标。正是这些广泛的数据集，我们打算分析，使用作为预测关键的第二代结果，个人，家庭和学校变量在前两次调查中衡量。使用这些数据，可以在该数据集的基础上以更稳健的方式处理因果顺序和因果效应的非伪证性问题。与本研究过去阶段一样，调查结果将通过学术出版物以及政策制定者和公众可访问的公开讲座、新闻文章和互联网站传播。该项目的学术价值包括：这是第一次通过关注当代移民后代的适应来研究当代移民的长期后果的重大研究。它将测试分段同化的新理论，并将它们与该领域经典观点产生的理论进行比较。该项目的更广泛影响包括：研究结果将提供关于当代第二代人适应及其对其集中的城市和地区的影响的第一个权威结论。因此，这项研究的结果将直接影响移民政策以及专注于新美国人的教育和语言项目。

The proposed study will analyze the adaptation process of second generation immigrants in early adulthood in the United States. Children of immigrants comprise today close to one-fourth of all young Americans aged 21 or under and represent the fastest growing segment of this population. Success or failure of second generation immigrants' economic, social, and cultural adaptation to American society will have an important effect on the cities and regions where today's immigrant population concentrate. This study will examine actual adult outcomes of the adaptation process on the basis of data collected expressly for this purpose. These data come from the just-completed third-survey of the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (CILS), the largest research project to date focused on the immigrant second generation. CILS was begun in 1992 with a survey of 5,266 children of immigrants attending 8th and 9th grades in Miami/Ft. Lauderdale and San Diego, and continued with a follow-up of these students at the time of high school graduation in 1995-96 plus a survey of 50 percent of their immigrant parents. The recently completed follow-up survey traces the original sample into early adulthood, average age 24 and includes detailed data on adult outcomes such as education, employment, occupational status, ethnicity of spouses/partners, present family situations, incarceration, teenage motherhood, welfare dependence, and other indicators of downward assimilation, voting, political preferences, civic behavior, ethnic and racial identities, and identification with American society. It is this extensive data set that we intend to analyze, employing as predictors of key second generation outcomes, personal, family, and school variables measured in the two earlier surveys. Using these data, issues of causal order and non-spuriousness of causal effects can be addressed in a more robust manner on the basis of this data set. Findings will be disseminated, as in past phases of this study, through academic publications as well as through public lectures, journalistic articles, and Internet sites accessible to policy-makers and the public. The project's intellectual merit includes the following: This is the first major study on the long-term consequences of contemporary immigration through a focus on the adaptation of its offspring. It will test novel theories of segmented assimilation and compare them with those stemming from classic perspectives in this field. The project's broader impacts include the following: Results of the study will provide the first authoritative conclusion about the adaptation of the contemporary second generation and its impact on the cities and regions where it concentrates. As such, results of the study will have a direct bearing on immigration policy and education and language programs focused on new Americans.