Study Finds Immigrants Adapting More Quickly

A new Manhattan Institute study says current immigrants are less assimilated overall into American society than previous generations, but they're also adapting more quickly than in previous years. The institute created an "assimilation index" to measure cultural and other differences between immigrants and the native-born. While the gap between the two groups is wider than in previous years, new immigrants are taking on native-born traits twice as fast as they did in the 1990s.

In Public Agenda's survey of immigrants, Now That I'm Here, we found a lot of similarities in attitudes between immigrants and the general public. For example, overwhelming majorities of immigrants are committed to working hard and staying off government assistance. Almost nine in 10 say it's extremely important for immigrants to learn English and their views on bilingual education are similar to the general public. But six in 10 say there's at least some anti-immigrant discrimination in the U.S., and three in 10 say they've experienced discrimination personally.