In this week’s readings, Becoming American/ Becoming New Yorkers describes an interesting phenomenon. The article says that the experience and incorporation into the American system has a drastic effect on the immigrants themselves, and their children. Gans, in 1992, wrote that second generation immigrants living in a poverty stricken black or Latino population will experience downward mobility. This is related to whether the children go to low performing schools, and get low paying jobs. But it seems as if it is also connected to their parents’ decisions.
If the immigrants come to America live among native Latinos and blacks and face racial discrimination, they will form a “reactive” native minority ethnicity.
It seems if this ethnicity is formed, the children will not fare well. The second generation will embrace the values of their peers who are all living in the same conditions, instead of attempting to absorb the values of society as a whole. The values sometimes leads the children to scoff at academic success, and will therefore not have the opportunity to raise themselves up in society when they come of age. In addition, they will reject the jobs their parents hold because they will resent having to work long hours for a low paying job. This will lead to a downward mobility, and instead of seeing success as attainable, the second generation immigrants will be looking on as the rest of society passes them.
There are obviously other factors that affect the second generation’s chance of succeeding in America, but if this is true, many of them are already starting with a disadvantage before they are born. It seems that the parents’ assimilation has a drastic effect on their second-generation immigrant children.
