More migrants' kids going to college

by Erin Kelly - Nov. 19, 2011 12:00 AM
Republic Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Mitzi Ortega is on her way to becoming the first person in her family to earn a bachelor's degree.

The 20-year-old Phoenix resident and aspiring physical-education teacher is the daughter of Mexican immigrants who came to this country with only a sixth-grade education. Her father works on the cleaning crew of a local hospital, and her mother is a homemaker.

"This is my way of paying my parents back for all they've done for me," said Ortega, an Arizona State University junior who was born in Arizona. "But I'm also doing it for myself. I want to be someone others can look to and say, 'If she was able to do it, I can do it, too.' "

Ortega represents a nationwide trend among young, second-generation Latina women who are enrolling in college at rates equal to non-Hispanic White women, according to a new report by the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.

The study's authors say their findings, based on U.S. census data, refute the notion that Hispanic immigrants somehow represent the "declining quality" of the nation's immigrants.

In fact, the share of second-generation Hispanics, the U.S.-born children of migrants, who enrolled in college rose from 30 percent in 1999 to 37 percent in 2009, the report said.

The gains were even stronger among Hispanic women. Forty-six percent of second-generation Latinas had enrolled in college in 2009. That was the same percentage as non-Hispanic White women.

The share of second-generation Latino men enrolled in college is lower, at 37 percent, and lags slightly behind non-Hispanic White men's 40 percent enrollment rate.

"What the MPI study tells us is the story of how immigration has worked in this country for the last 100 to 150 years," said Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, a professor of globalization and education at New York University. "The second generation always does better than the first."

Although the college-enrollment rates are good news, they are tempered by the fact that second-generation Hispanic men and women still lag when it comes to completing college and earning degrees. Part of the the reason for that gap is strong financial pressure for the children of immigrants to work and help provide for their families.

Hispanic women trail non-Hispanic White women by 18 percentage points when it comes to completing an associate's degree or higher by age 25 or 26. Hispanic men trail non-Hispanic White men by just 3 percentage points, the study said.

"This is particularly significant because our research shows that wages rise with every level of education," said MPI Senior Vice President Michael Fix, a co-author of the study. "Second-generation Hispanic women with at least a bachelor's degree earn on average $10 more per hour than those with a high-school degree."

The value of a four-year degree is especially high for women, who need it to earn at least $16 an hour -- wages high enough to sustain a family. Men are more likely to earn family-sustaining wages without a college degree, the report said.

A large share of second-generation Hispanic women are from low-income families that cannot afford to help them with college tuition. As a result, many have to juggle jobs and college classes. Also, 52 percent of second-generation Hispanic women ages 25 to 26 have young children.

"These kids really, truly believe in the American Dream and the importance of education," Suárez-Orozco said. "But once they get into college, they face very, very uncertain odds."

To remove some of the barriers to completing college, the report recommends dual enrollment in high school and college to shorten learning time and save fees, flexible scheduling of classes, greater access to financial aid and day care, and making credits fully transferable from two-year community colleges to four-year universities.

Many second-generation immigrants also are bilingual, an asset in a global economy that needs to be given more credit in high-school and college degree programs, the report said.

"The futures of these young adults will remain up for grabs until educators, employers and policymakers develop a greater understanding of this population's unique characteristics and shape (programs) to better suit their needs," Fix said.

Ortega said she got a boost from an ASU Hispanic mother-daughter program that helped her plan for college beginning in seventh grade. The mentor program helped her figure out which classes to take in high school to best prepare her for college. It also brought her over to the ASU campus so she would be less intimidated when she got there.

She said she also benefited from a program that allowed her to take advanced-placement classes in high school and enroll in community-college classes that gave her credits to fulfill her requirements for high school and college at the same time.

Still, Ortega said, it will probably take her five years to complete her bachelor's degree.

She works part time as a tutor and used to work a second job at a discount store until her grades began to suffer and she cut back to one job.

"Having to juggle all this stuff, instead of just school, makes it harder," she said. "But I'm determined to do it."

The fate of Ortega and others like her should concern all Americans, Fix said, because recent immigrants now represent one in four U.S. residents -- or more than 11 million people -- ages 16 to 26. That is an increase from one in five just 15 years ago, the report said.

Arizona is home to 3 percent of the nation's 11.3 million young-adult immigrants, according to the report. Within Arizona, the young immigrants make up 31 percent of the state's youth population, which the report defines as people ages 16 to 26.

Although second-generation, U.S.-born Latino immigrants are making significant gains, their first-generation, foreign-born counterparts continue to face much bigger barriers to education and good-paying jobs. Among those barriers: about 85 percent have limited English proficiency, 58 percent of the women 25 to 26 have young children, and more than 70 percent are in the United States illegally.

"This group ... is essentially trapped in low-paid jobs with limited mobility," the report said.

For example, while 46 percent of second-generation Hispanic women ages 19 to 24 are enrolled in college, only 14 percent of first-generation women are enrolled.

In Arizona, 11 percent of first-generation Hispanic immigrants and 27 percent of second-generation Hispanics ages 19 to 24 are enrolled in college.

Nearly 8 percent of first-generation Hispanics ages 22 to 26 in Arizona have earned an associate's degree or higher. Nearly 12 percent of second-generation Hispanics have earned a college degree. That number jumps to more than 20 percent when the Hispanic immigrants are third generation or higher.

The U.S. recession and tougher border security have reduced the number of first-generation immigrants.

At the same time, a boom of second-generation immigrants born in the United States in the 1990s is reaching adulthood. Second-generation immigrants are now a 36 percent larger group than first-generation immigrants who were born in other countries, the report said.

Those U.S.-born immigrants are going to have much greater political clout than the foreign-born immigrants, Fix said.
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