INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
That is the implication of a new research paper by economists Ran Abramitzky, Leah Platt Boustan, Elisa Jacome and Santiago Perez.Using
historical Census data to compare the incomes of immigrant fathers and their native-born sons, the economists found that the second
generation has been just as capable of moving up the economic ladder in recent decades as they were a century ago
Looking at second-generation American men whose immigrant fathers were at the 25th percentile of income - in other words, fairly poor - they
could measure, immigrant upward mobility is greater now than it was a century ago:Almost all children of recent immigrants tend to be more
upwardly mobile than people whose parents were born in the US
That isn't surprising, since immigrants often have limited English skills and lack personal networks in the country; their children, who
don't suffer these disadvantages, naturally tend to move up to an income level more commensurate with their ambition and abilities
Furthermore, immigrants tend to move to places where upward mobility is easier, like big cities and college towns.But immigrants from some
countries are especially mobile:The average second-generation Indian- or Chinese-American who grew up on the edge of poverty will tend to
reach the upper-middle class
That level of upward mobility is simply amazing
For Indian-Americans, the phenomenon is particularly surprising, since most Indian immigrants already speak English when they arrive, and
hence have less of a handicap relative to their native-born kids.Why do Indian and Chinese immigrants do so well? Some will no doubt
attribute their outperformance to cultural values of education and hard work
In reality, it's probably more about the type of immigrants who come from those countries
Indian and Chinese people tend to come to the United States not as refugees or unauthorized low-wage laborers, but as high-skilled workers
or the close relatives of skilled workers
That means even poor Indian and Chinese immigrants tend to have prosperous friends and relatives, and to come from families that value
And India and China have by far the biggest pools of population from which to select such driven and talented individuals.This is especially
Even in comparison with other high-achieving groups, Indian-Americans stand out in terms of education level and dominance in high-skilled
occupations:As a result, Indians are the highest-earning group by ancestry in the US, with a median household income of more than $110,000
in 2016 (the difference isn't due to larger households, since Indian-Americans also come out on top in terms of per capita income)
But it's not just scientific and technical fields in which Indian-Americans excel
They are increasingly a force in politics and law
A growing number of politicians, top political staffers and judges are of Indian descent
In business, too, Indians are rocketing to the top -- two of the US's five biggest companies, Alphabet Inc
and Microsoft Corp., have Indian-born chief executive officers
that all Indian-Americans are successful; some are poor
Nor should Indian achievement be used as a reason to denigrate other lower-skilled immigrant groups
The point, rather, is that the US could benefit by letting in more Indian immigrants.Employer-sponsored permanent residence permits, or
green cards, are parceled out by country
in a given year, though some countries' unused spots can be given to other countries
This system is deeply biased against big countries like India and China
solution is to simply remove the country cap
Congress has been trying to do this, with a bill called the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act, but the legislation is being blocked
by a handful of powerful senators.Eliminating the country cap would be fair to large countries and would improve the flow of talent into the
US, but it would only be a marginal improvement
A better idea is to simply increase the number of employment-sponsored green cards, and make the extra cards not subject to country caps
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