Integration of Immigrants

Guest: Irene Bloemraad, PhD, Professor of Sociology and Member of the U.S National Academics of Sciences  This year marks the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Immigration Act of 1965. Much of what we discuss today regarding immigration stems from that act 50 years ago – the rise in immigrants from Asia and Africa; the challenge of preventing people from crossing the US/Mexico border illegally. One point often obscured in the heated debate is this: a quarter of people living in the United States are the children or grandchildren of immigrants.  How well have these immigrants integrated into American society? That’s the question more than a dozen of the nation’s top scholars convened to study last year.