Anonymous wrote:I just want to reiterate what others are saying here. For working class immigrants, it typically takes several generations to accumulate wealth and hit the kind of middle class respectability that OP appears to be looking for.

Yes, there are exceptions, and we celebrate those exceptions, but at the population level social mobility is hard and slow.

I'm the second/third generation born in the United States to a variety of Eastern and Southern European immigrants. At the time that my great-grandparents and/or grandparents immigrated, it was generally assumed that Polish, Italian, Spanish, Russian, etc immigrants were incapable to learning English and entering the middle class.

My grandparents' generation included a carpenter, a janitor, a SAHM, and a domestic laborer.

My parents' generation (with siblings) included a nurse, a teacher, someone who owned their own construction agency, and a SAHM.

My generation includes a city planner, a lawyer, a veterinarian, and a senior military official.

If you had looked at us after only one generation in the United States, you might have wondered if we were taking advantage of the resources this country was offering, but the truth is that social mobility is hard.

Many people chose nursing and teaching because they want to help and are from MC/UMC backgrounds. But maybe it does not appeal to certain groups because you don't make much money. I am an immigrant and I am a nurse (RN-people use nurse to describe other professions) and it's interesting to see that many of the young ones coming in are from white MC/UMC backgrounds vs. the older nurses from more diverse SES backgrounds. It's become more sought after/competitive to get into good BSN programs.

I just want to reiterate what others are saying here. For working class immigrants, it typically takes several generations to accumulate wealth and hit the kind of middle class respectability that OP appears to be looking for.

Yes, there are exceptions, and we celebrate those exceptions, but at the population level social mobility is hard and slow.

I'm the second/third generation born in the United States to a variety of Eastern and Southern European immigrants. At the time that my great-grandparents and/or grandparents immigrated, it was generally assumed that Polish, Italian, Spanish, Russian, etc immigrants were incapable to learning English and entering the middle class.

My grandparents' generation included a carpenter, a janitor, a SAHM, and a domestic laborer.

My parents' generation (with siblings) included a nurse, a teacher, someone who owned their own construction agency, and a SAHM.

My generation includes a city planner, a lawyer, a veterinarian, and a senior military official.

If you had looked at us after only one generation in the United States, you might have wondered if we were taking advantage of the resources this country was offering, but the truth is that social mobility is hard.

Not all Asian immigrants are successful in the second generation either, OP.

OP it’s highly dependent on many different things like SES, parents’ education, emphasis on education....like it is for US born kids.

I know a few children of immigrants as servers and doctor's assistants. Several still live at home because family helps with childcare and DMV living is expensive. I have high hopes for their children. It takes couple of generations to build wealth.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach Hispanic students in a low income neighborhood. Most do graduate from high school if they are fluent English speakers. The newcomers in our middle school sometimes do not graduate but the high school teachers work hard to make sure they get the extra help they need to graduate. Only a few of my former students have graduated from a 4-year college. If they do go to college, they tend to go to community college while working. If they graduate, it takes a lot longer than 2 years since they are working at the same time. Very few enroll in 4-year colleges due to the cost. Occasionally they get enough FA and scholarship money to go to a 4 yr college. The ones who graduate are almost always very driven girls.

Higher education is not common in their culture. Most are second-generation students and their parents earn enough to send some money home to relatives. Many of the boys go to work with their male relatives in construction and landscaping. Most of the girls have had their first kids by age 22 or so.

The above bolded is very racist. You know that Latin America is full of successful and affluent doctors, lawyers, engineers, scientists, etc... The immigrants who come to the US tend to be the poorest and least educated so they are not representative of all Latin American culture.

Yes, but lets also mention that high school education and even primary education is not available and free to all Latin Americans. That doesn't make them less smart, but it does keep them from becoming a professional or at least make it harder.
There are immigrants from countries where 1-12 is mandatory. It makes a big difference in success in US or anywhere.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach Hispanic students in a low income neighborhood. Most do graduate from high school if they are fluent English speakers. The newcomers in our middle school sometimes do not graduate but the high school teachers work hard to make sure they get the extra help they need to graduate. Only a few of my former students have graduated from a 4-year college. If they do go to college, they tend to go to community college while working. If they graduate, it takes a lot longer than 2 years since they are working at the same time. Very few enroll in 4-year colleges due to the cost. Occasionally they get enough FA and scholarship money to go to a 4 yr college. The ones who graduate are almost always very driven girls.

Higher education is not common in their culture. Most are second-generation students and their parents earn enough to send some money home to relatives. Many of the boys go to work with their male relatives in construction and landscaping. Most of the girls have had their first kids by age 22 or so.

The above bolded is very racist. You know that Latin America is full of successful and affluent doctors, lawyers, engineers, scientists, etc... The immigrants who come to the US tend to be the poorest and least educated so they are not representative of all Latin American culture.

?
Of course there are professionals in Latin America. Duh.
That does not mean OP presumes there are not. I think it is a genuine question and I wondered the same.

Totally agree with the other PP who noted that most of the Hispanic immigrants to the US are NOT from the professional classes in Latin America (since those folks can do fine at home) but rather poorer classes - probably similar to most cultures that immigrated here en masse at one point like past waves of Irish and Italians for instance. I think more telling will be the kids of the people born here as first generation and whether higher numbers of them are able to make the jump. But expecting first generation Americans to be going to college in droves is not realistic at all based on historical immigration patterns.

How is it racist if the students are white?

Anonymous wrote:It isn't a troll, it is genuine curiosity.

From what I gather, there is a small cohort in a large high school that does well but by and large, it seems that many of the children that are visible minorities may not have much success moving up socioeconomically.

Maybe I'm wrong hence my question but was wondering if there are areas that generally do well. I always hear about how bad things are becoming in MoCo or how bad schools in ACPS and eastern Fairfax can be... so I just wanted to have a conversation after the fact on outcomes.

Same as americans who have been here for hundreds of years.

I lived in a poor community, and had parents who worked hard--and I happened to be academically strong. I went to college on scholarships. parent's money, and loans, and am now a white collar professional. Most people in my community barely graduate high school, and are lucky if they go to trade school. I happen to be white, most of the people I lived near happen to be black. Assume the same thing occurs with poorer immigrant communities as well.

Anonymous wrote:I teach Hispanic students in a low income neighborhood. Most do graduate from high school if they are fluent English speakers. The newcomers in our middle school sometimes do not graduate but the high school teachers work hard to make sure they get the extra help they need to graduate. Only a few of my former students have graduated from a 4-year college. If they do go to college, they tend to go to community college while working. If they graduate, it takes a lot longer than 2 years since they are working at the same time. Very few enroll in 4-year colleges due to the cost. Occasionally they get enough FA and scholarship money to go to a 4 yr college. The ones who graduate are almost always very driven girls.

Higher education is not common in their culture. Most are second-generation students and their parents earn enough to send some money home to relatives. Many of the boys go to work with their male relatives in construction and landscaping. Most of the girls have had their first kids by age 22 or so.

The above bolded is very racist. You know that Latin America is full of successful and affluent doctors, lawyers, engineers, scientists, etc... The immigrants who come to the US tend to be the poorest and least educated so they are not representative of all Latin American culture.

*my father attended community college after working a few years after high school.

Anonymous wrote:People need to have realistic expectations (and honestly a lot of people don't). There are very few people around the world who go from a rural peasant background to professional, upper middle class in one generation. Immigrants through the history of the United States take a couple of generations to move up the SES ladder. The immigrants from many of these communities view themselves as better off than they were in their home country, otherwise they wouldn't stay. So, we don't need to fret, but just continue to provide educational opportunities. It is not systemic racism that keeps a teenager who arrived in the US speaking no English and having little to no formal education (many aliterate) from going to college. Honestly, I think we could help more if we took those teenagers and put them in an intensive English/vocational program, rather than trying to have them adapt to Geometry class. Kids that are smart can move quickly and enroll in CC once they speak English.

This is true. I’m the poster on the other page with the white husband who grew up poor. In my family, it took about about three generations. None of my grandparents attended college and only one finished high school. That was unusual and considered an advanced education back then. My parents went to college, but my mother went later in life after all of her children were older. Everyone in my family was very proud of where they came from, and still are! No one felt like they didn’t have the same opportunities and wanted to work for everything we had. I had many older relatives who didn’t speak English. It wasn’t necessary for them since everyone in the neighborhood and lives spoke the same here in their US neighborhoods. Now a few generations later, my children are very much white Americans in FCPS, by anyone who’s quickly looking. But they are also proud of their relatives even if they don’t really understand since their experiences have been so different. I think it takes at least 2-3 generations if not more. You are right, don’t worry. Just provide opportunities.

Huh? I live four hours away from where I grew up. I didn't stay living in the community I grew up in.

People need to have realistic expectations (and honestly a lot of people don't). There are very few people around the world who go from a rural peasant background to professional, upper middle class in one generation. Immigrants through the history of the United States take a couple of generations to move up the SES ladder. The immigrants from many of these communities view themselves as better off than they were in their home country, otherwise they wouldn't stay. So, we don't need to fret, but just continue to provide educational opportunities. It is not systemic racism that keeps a teenager who arrived in the US speaking no English and having little to no formal education (many aliterate) from going to college. Honestly, I think we could help more if we took those teenagers and put them in an intensive English/vocational program, rather than trying to have them adapt to Geometry class. Kids that are smart can move quickly and enroll in CC once they speak English.

Anonymous wrote:[b]

Anonymous wrote:I teach Hispanic students in a low income neighborhood. Most do graduate from high school if they are fluent English speakers. The newcomers in our middle school sometimes do not graduate but the high school teachers work hard to make sure they get the extra help they need to graduate. Only a few of my former students have graduated from a 4-year college. If they do go to college, they tend to go to community college while working. If they graduate, it takes a lot longer than 2 years since they are working at the same time. Very few enroll in 4-year colleges due to the cost. Occasionally they get enough FA and scholarship money to go to a 4 yr college. The ones who graduate are almost always very driven girls.

Higher education is not common in their culture. Most are second-generation students and their parents earn enough to send some money home to relatives. Many of the boys go to work with their male relatives in construction and landscaping. Most of the girls have had their first kids by age 22 or so.

It is so disheartening to think that you teach these children? Just think logically when you write things like- higher education is not common in their culture. So there are barely any doctors, lawyers, scientists or teachers in all of Latin America? How can you be so ignorant? Alex Padilla, the new senator from CA who replaced Kamala Harris, graduated from MIT with an engineering degree. His parents were a cook and a maid.

Latin America is not their culture. Their culture is what they are surrounded by day after day. Of course, some people around them succeed academically and financially but it is not common. I'm sure if you looked at why the people you mentioned were successful, you can see what the important factor was. Maybe the child was very driven themselves. Most of our successful students are like this. That is just their personality. They are tenacious and nothing will get in their way. If they aren't, they need someone pushing them. If your parents only expect you to graduate from high school and you don't have anyone else expecting more from you, it's hard to do it on your own. I doubt I would've finished college if it wasn't for my mom pushing me. Nobody in my family had graduated from a 4 yr college. Once I saw that I could do it, I went back for a graduate degree. You just need one person in your life keeping you on track. It's hard if you don't have that person.