David J. Bier, a research fellow at the Cato Institute who has built an expertise in immigration issues over the last few years, has an outstanding post today titled “Haitians Assimilate Well in the United States,” Cato at Liberty, October 4.
He applies a data howitzer to the issue, laying out fact after fact that make his case.
Here are a few.
Language assimilation of Haitian immigrants:
more than two thirds of Haitians above the age of 25 do not speak English well upon moving to the United States (Figure 1). However, this rate falls quite dramatically as Haitians remain in the United States over a long period of time, to only ~17 percent after 10 or more years of residence.
Haitians get jobs quickly:
Although most Haitians arrive without jobs, a majority of adults find work within 1 year. After three years of residency in the United States, Haitians actually had a higher rate of employment than the population on average, peaking at nearly 80 percent, or almost 20 percent higher than the national average.
I think he understates it. I think he’s comparing 80 percent to our employment/population ratio of 58.5 percent as of August 2021. 80 percent is a whopping 37 percent above 58.5 percent. Bier may have had in mind a more normal pre-pandemic time, such as 2019. Even there, though, he understated it. The employment/population ratio then was 60.8 percent. 80 percent is 32 percent about 60.8 percent. (Maybe his 20 percent was meant to be 20 percentage points.)
Language of people born in the United States but of Haitian ancestry:
Nearly 100 percent of those born in the United States with Haitian ancestry speak English well or very well with only 1 percent speaking English “not well” or not at all.
Do read the whole thing.
READER COMMENTS
Tyler Wells
Oct 4 2021 at 9:59pm
I have no doubt of this, although it has been years since I have had the pleasure of working with Haitian immigrants. I also have no doubt that this particular group attempting to enter from Mexico would be especially wonderful additions to the country. I understand that many originated by working in Brazil and then Chile and have worked their way north. They are clearly an enterprising and hard-working group. Alas, I am doubtful that America will give them access.
An aside, worrying about the children of immigrants not mastering the English language would seem to be incredibly unfounded. My son has a friend who immigrated here from South America a little more than a year ago and, despite the fact that we are all fluent in Spanish, he prefers to communicate to us in English. The pull of English is very strong.
Frank
Oct 4 2021 at 11:06pm
Hell, most Americans can’t speak proper English!
Matthias
Oct 5 2021 at 12:08am
Wouldn’t you want to adjust the employment figures for age (and gender) at least?
David Henderson
Oct 5 2021 at 10:43am
Good point. Yes, I think one should and I think that doing so would narrow the gap considerably. I don’t think we have enough data to do so, but I might be wrong.
Anders
Oct 5 2021 at 6:58am
Is there some self-selection involved – some traits that migrating Haitians are more likely to have than their compatriots?
In general, the little panel data I have seen comparing integration and success of immigrants show that the US is much better than most European countries and providing opportunities – even for Moslem migrants, by far the EU migrant group with the worst and ostensibly endemic outcomes even in second and third generations.
At the same time, Northern Europe in particular scores much better than the US on intergenerational mobility.
Any thoughts?
Thomas Lee Hutcheson
Oct 5 2021 at 8:17am
That we should try to identify those traits and use them and others to select the best (most likely to raise long run per capita income of residents at the time of their immigration) million or so immigrants to admit legally each year. The main constraint (This would not be open borders as BK advocates.) would be our ability to detect and deter fraud in applicants claimed qualifications. Although not a specific goal, this would help restore a US/China GDP of >1.
David Henderson
Oct 5 2021 at 10:48am
You ask:
I’m sure there is, as there is with any immigrant group.
You write:
That fits what I’ve seen, both in panel data and in the numerous anecdotes. I think the Biden administration is, unintentionally, trying to blow it though with its support of large payments per child. That will, over time, weakness work force attachment, making it easier for immigrants to isolate.
You write:
I’m not familiar with that. Any cites?
Anders
Oct 6 2021 at 4:50am
Thanks for the reply, very helpful to me as an amateur – an interested one, but still.
On why the US is so good at integrating migrants: While I am also worried about the unintended incentives created through welfare spending – let alone the assumption that 3 trn can be spent well under existing structures, I do not recall fluctuations in welfare spending having detrimental effects on the dynamics of integration of first and second generation immigrants – as opposed to the effects, or at least correlations, among African Americans and the already poor. Am I wrong? At any rate, I would speculate that immigrants who make it to the US come here expecting to work – in contrast to Europe, few people have mythical ideas about the generosity of the US dole.
On intergenerational mobility – I am too lazy (and not particularly committed to a specific point of view) to dig up the study I read on this, but these are the parameters I remember: the study compared intergenerational mobility in Sweden and Denmark, countries with a strong safety net coupled with at times radical economic freedom (apart from taxes, but they are only a slight bit higher than in California and includes health care). The metrics were, I think, income levels and educational attainment variations across variations. They found that the educational and social status of the parent household were more correlated with that of the next generation in the US than in Scandinavia. The great exception was Moslem immigrants, where the reverse held.
I found that surprising. I myself moved to the US as a teenager from a family with no high-school education – and it was there that I was spurred and motivated to even consider going to college and later even doing very well. In the US, you hear that you can do anything; people readily switch careers; and while college is expensive, there is more supply than demand for scholarships for poor children, especially of color.
Dr. Zoidbergo
Oct 7 2021 at 7:54pm
There was an Econtalk episode not long ago on the question of mobility in Scandinavia (Denmark specifically) vs. the US: https://www.econtalk.org/james-heckman-on-inequality-and-economic-mobility/
The guest was making the case that income mobility is greater in the US than Denmark, but I don’t remember the details too well.
Grant Gould
Oct 5 2021 at 7:07am
I selfishly hope for some incomplete assimilation, because the two best Haitian restaurants near here didn’t survive the pandemic and I am definitely missing them!
Seriously, if there are people out there whose obsessive nativism denies them (and me!) Haitian cuisine, I simply cannot fathom what could drive them to such an extreme.
Thomas Lee Hutcheson
Oct 5 2021 at 8:31am
Although I agree that the Hattians arriving at the border would be prima facie “good” immigrants — we are so far from equilibrium, almost any prospective immigrant is — still the best thing political economically to do would be to have a fair administrative procedure, applied to them as to other asylum seekers to determine if they qualify for asylum. We will never make progress toward a merit-based immigration system (although Biden could push the legislative limits of the system we have) so long as many people are entering illegally. We do not have to shoot for zero — no Wall — that would not be cost effective, but we should deter all but those with the highest risk tolerance.
Frank
Oct 5 2021 at 5:50pm
Hell, what voluntary immigrant groups have not assimilated?
-An immigrant with an inquiring mind wants to know! 🙂
Fear of immigrants is about the effect on wages. So, who owns the border?
Christophe Biocca
Oct 6 2021 at 9:07am
Benjamin Franklin used to worry about German immigrants not assimilating in Pennsylvania. He was mostly wrong, but some are the ancestors of the modern day Amish and Old Order Mennonites.
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