The immigrant paradox - thoughts?

[Raze]

Summary: data shows in the US children of immigrants do better in school, and are less likely to have mental health issues, among other better outcomes. However this was not always the case, in the past they did worse.

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The most recent Scripps National Spelling Bee broke records. The Bee ran out of words for contestants to spell. After the final eight contestants breezed through aiguillette (a braided military decoration), bougainvillea (an ornamental climbing vine), pendeloque (a pear-shaped pendant), and other gems, the MC, Jacques Bailly, announced that the Bee had exhausted its lists of challenging words. All eight finalists earned an equal share of the trophy, the first time the prize has been shared by more than three contestants. The Twitter feed for the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the official dictionary of the Bee, posted a simple Tweet acknowledging “The Dictionary concedes,” listing the names of the Octochamps. 

Of the eight winners, seven were children of immigrants from India. Seven out of eight. 

Whether you are looking at high school valedictorians, spelling bee champions, or science fair winners, the children of immigrants dominate. The Science Talent Search is the oldest and most prestigious science competition for high school students in the United States. According to one study, 33 out of 40 finalists in a recent Science Talent Search were the children of immigrants. 

On many parameters, the children of immigrants now outperform the children of parents who were born and raised in the United States. Across the board, the children of immigrants have better academic outcomes compared with the children of nonimmigrants, despite the fact that the children of immigrants are more likely to speak English as a second language. As IFS Senior Fellow Nicholas Zill has noted, the children of immigrants are also less likely to get in trouble at school compared with the children of nonimmigrants. The children of immigrants are also less liable to engage in delinquent criminal behavior and are less likely to be anxious compared with nonimmigrant children. 

What makes this phenomenon so interesting is that it is still fairly new. When I was earning my doctorate in psychology at the University of Pennsylvania 40 years ago, we were taught that immigrant status was a predictor of bad outcomes for children. Investigations in the 1950s and 1960s had found that when immigrants arrived in the United States from overseas, their children were at greater risk for anxiety, depression, and poor school performance. We read a monograph published by Oxford University Press, which presented evidence that the best intervention professionals could offer immigrant children was to help them to assimilate. 

I have been a medical doctor for 35 years. Back in 1994, I remember reading a report in JAMA (the Journal of the American Medical Association) announcing that children of immigrants were now healthier than children of nonimmigrants—and that American mothers were much more likely than immigrant mothers to be depressed, despite enjoying higher incomes. "Infant Health Paradox" was the headline, because it seemed paradoxical back then that the children of immigrants could enjoy any advantage over the children of nonimmigrants. The findings, the article said, "challenge widely held assumptions that U.S. women, usually with higher levels of education, employment, and income, have healthier infants than immigrants." Rubén Rumbaut, a lead investigator on that study, told reporters "We are trying to unlock the paradox." The term "immigrant paradox" gained wide currency because it seemed paradoxical to researchers in the 1990s that immigrants could have any advantages in outcomes over nonimmigrants.  

A long generation ago, children whose parents were born and raised in the United States enjoyed advantages. Today, children whose parents were born and raised in the United States are at a disadvantage compared to the children of immigrants. What happened? 

source: https://ifstudies.org/blog/the-immigrant-paradox-why-are-children-of-immigrants-doing-better

What is your opinion on this?

Why do you think it is happening?

[Bobby_2021]

Indian immigrants to the west are nitpicked for high IQ and hardworking and they are already decently rich back home. Only high IQ Indians are allowed to pass the barrier to migration. 

They will crack tests faster and get accepted into jobs and their children are also usually high IQ and also hardworking & disciplined. 

This can easily compound over a few generations. 

This is why the small minorities (for eg Indian Americans) do better compared to whites who have a lot of systemic advantages. 

 

 

If you allow random people to migrate to US/Europe, the exact opposite would happen. (Riots in Sweden for example.)

Edited August 31, 2022 by Bobby_2021

[Raze]

5 hours ago, Bobby_2021 said:

Indian immigrants to the west are nitpicked for high IQ and hardworking and they are already decently rich back home. Only high IQ Indians are allowed to pass the barrier to migration. 

They will crack tests faster and get accepted into jobs and their children are also usually high IQ and also hardworking & disciplined. 

This can easily compound over a few generations. 

This is why the small minorities (for eg Indian Americans) do better compared to whites who have a lot of systemic advantages. 

 

 

If you allow random people to migrate to US/Europe, the exact opposite would happen. (Riots in Sweden for example.)

Probably not.

1. it isn’t just Indian or Asian immigrants that have this pattern.

2. This should carry over even more so to the second and third generations, but it doesn’t.

3. Why is this only happening now? This should also be the case in the past. but it wasn’t and immigrants didn’t have these advantages.

[Bobby_2021]

1 hour ago, Raze said:

. it isn’t just Indian or Asian immigrants that have this pattern.

Same. If you could afford to migrate, then you are already highly skilled worker. Normies cannot migrate. 

Indian Americans are the primary example of this. Not the only one of course. 

1 hour ago, Raze said:

2. This should carry over even more so to the second and third generations, but it doesn’t.

Largely it does. Wealthy parents have privileged kids whose privilege compounds. 

1 hour ago, Raze said:

3. Why is this only happening now? This should also be the case in the past. but it wasn’t and immigrants didn’t have these advantages.

Because jobs in the past didn't require IQ. Anyone who decided to work hard could make it. So the migrants didn't have any particular power to leverage.

These days jobs in tech, finance etc require high Iq and hard work.

Modern times also have increased upward mobility compared to past.

So high Iq migrants leveraged that.