Land of Opportunity
The one area where they lag is education. Roughly 60 percent of Hispanics graduate from high school, compared with 90 percent of nonimmigrant Americans; only 8 percent get college degrees, compared with 26 percent of whites. Their strong work ethic compounds the problem by drawing many young Latinos into the workforce before they finish high school, keeping high school graduation rates lower and trapping too many in low-wage service jobs. In fairness, the urban public schools that they typically attend have failed them, as they have failed so many others, for these are no longer the best schools with the best teachers, as they were a century ago.
Yes, the challenges of this wave of Hispanic immigration are daunting, especially the illegals. But there's no reason to be pessimistic. The evidence suggests strongly that we will be able to absorb the Hispanics--as we have earlier generations from Europe--and weave them into a dynamic American society. Not only that. Every new wave of immigrants has taught our nation something new and enriched our culture. This, in other words, is an opportunity, not a problem.
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