Comment (about the widedly covered CIS report) by Wayne A. Cornelius, Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, UCSD – (Very good read)

Academic experts including myself and think-tank demographers like Jeffrey Passell at the Pew Hispanic Center agree that there has been a slowdown in undocumented migration since 2007; the real question is what is causing it. The CIS report declares victory for the “enforcement-only” approach, but it offers no direct evidence that fewer undocumented migrants are attempting to come to the U.S., nor that fewer of them are getting in, nor that more of those already here are leaving the U.S., as a result of enforcement efforts. In another romp through census (Current Population Survey) data that contains no information on the legal status of interviewees, CIS uses “young, less-educated, Hispanic” as a proxy for being illegal – at least three-quarters of them (another arbitrary guess-timate). This is such a grossly imprecise metric that it renders the rest of the analysis essentially useless, especially the alleged discrepancy between growth rates of the illegal vs. legal immigrant population, which the report claims is a key indicator that enforcement is working.”

• Country of Origin Profiles: Browse detailed demographic and economic profiles of Hispanics in the United States by their countries of origin.
• Disturbing Statistics about Latino Educational Attainment
• Pew Hispanic Center study reveals blocks in Latinos’ road to college – Two Latinas say they would have gone to universities if they’d had the chance – Salinas, CA perspective
• Latinos have scant access to higher education, Pew Hispanic survey finds
• Young Latino adults in the United States are more likely to be in school or the work force now than their counterparts were in previous generations. In 1970, 77% of Hispanics ages 16 to 25 were either working, going to school or serving in the military; by 2007, 86% of Latinos in this coming-of-age group were taking part in these skill-building endeavors
• 89% Latino young adults ages 16 to 25 say that a college education is important for success in life, yet only about half that number-48%-say that they themselves plan to get a college degree
• Pew Hispanic Report: The Changing Pathways of Hispanic Youths Into Adulthood
• Pew Hispanic Report: Latinos and Education: Explaining the Attainment Gap
• New survey of Latino teens and young adults shows attitudes toward school and work + a day-long conference on Latino youth and education on Oct. 6, 2009
• Hispanics, Health Insurance and Health Care Access – Pew Hispanic Report – 60% Hispanic adults living in the United States who are not citizens or legal permanent residents lack health insurance.
• Data and Resources: Country of Origin Profiles – Pew Hispanic Center
• Mexican Immigrants: How Many Come? How Many Leave?
• New Pew Hispanic Fact Sheet: Puerto Ricans in the United States, 2007 – Some 4.1 million Puerto Ricans resided in the US in 2007
• It’s assimilation, nothing more – Gregory Tejeda’s thoughts on the new Pew Hispanic Report: Hispanic Children: The Rise of the Second Generation
• Look into the future: Hispanics 2.0 – Esther Cepeda’s thoughts on the new Pew Hispanic Report: Hispanic Children: The Rise of the Second Generation
• Hispanics now make up 22% of all children under the age of 18 in the United States–up from 9% in 1980–and as their numbers have grown, their demographic profile has changed. A majority (52%) of the nation’s 16 million Hispanic children are now “second generation,” meaning they are the U.S.-born sons or daughters of at least one foreign-born parent, typically someone who came to this country in the immigration wave from Mexico, Central America and South America that began around 1980. Some 11% of Latino children are “first generation”–meaning they themselves are foreign-born. And 37% are “third generation or higher”–meaning they are the U.S.-born children of U.S.-born parents.
• Nearly 75% of illegal immigrants’ children were born in the USA and are citizens, according to a report released Tuesday by the Pew Hispanic Center. – (nice interactive map)
• Fewer than half of Hispanics in the United States believe they will be treated fairly by police or the courts, showing a level of distrust greater than that of whites but less than blacks, according to surveys. – Pew Hispanic Center
• At a time when Latinos are interacting more than ever with police, courts and prisons, their confidence in the U.S. criminal justice system is closer to the low levels expressed by blacks than to the high levels expressed by whites, according to a pair of nationwide surveys by the Pew Research Center.
• Sharp Growth in Suburban Minority Enrollment Yields Modest Gains in School Diversity