TRAJECTORIES FOR THE IMMIGRANT SECOND GENERATION IN NEW YORK CITY

The fates of immigrant's children --- the new second generation -- will likely shape how to evaluate the current epoch of immigration. The 2000 Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) indicates that 1.62 million biological children, adopted children, or stepchildren under the age of 18 lived in families headed by their parent or parents in New York City in 2000. While New York City can be tough on any young person, regardless of where their parents were born, the children of immigrants face extra difficulties. First, only a third of New York City's 3 million households are families with related children under 18. Scholars speculating about second-generation trajectories have also worried that the larger social patterns of racial inequality and discrimination will force those children of immigrants who are not classified as white into the ranks of persistently poor native minorities. The census PUMS data provide only very limited information for assessing the educational outcomes of the new second generation.