Report: Today's immigrants assimilate 'as fast and broadly' as earlier European waves

Contrary to popular misconceptions promulgated by certain Republican presidential candidates, academic findings show that the most recent generation of immigrants are assimilating “as fast and broadly” as generations past.

“The Integration of Immigrants into American Society”—a 400-page report published Monday by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine—looks at issues related to immigration, like English-language fluency, health, education, and crime rates.

According to the report, a majority of immigrant families speak English exclusively by the third generation. The report also found that today’s immigrants are picking up the English language “as rapidly or faster now than…earlier waves of mainly European immigrants in the 20th century.”

“The desire on the part of immigrants to learn English is very high,” Harvard sociologist Mary C. Waters, one of the 18 immigration scholars behind the report, told The New York Times. She also said that the fear of immigrants imposing foreign languages on native-born Americans “is not something people should be worried about.”

The report also found that foreign-born adults and children have a much lower risk for chronic illness and obesity than native-born Americans. Crime rates are shown to be lower in cities and neighborhoods with high concentrations of immigrants when compared with comparable areas without immigrants, but the researchers found evidence that crime rates increase and eventually match those of native-born Americans as immigrants assimilate.

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