Latino Survey Shows Optimism About Assimilation

WASHINGTON —  Most Latino immigrants want to settle in the United States, learn English and become citizens, but they feel that discrimination is a major barrier to success, according to a national survey released Tuesday.

The poll of nearly 3,000 Latino adults, including immigrants and those born here, was billed as the most comprehensive contemporary look at an expanding population of more than 35 million U.S. residents.

“It’s the first portrait of the Hispanic population as it is now, after the growth experienced during the 1990s,” said Roberto Suro, director of the nonprofit Pew Hispanic Center, which conducted the study with the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The survey did not break out undocumented immigrants. But previous estimates have placed the number from Mexico alone at 3 million to 5 million people. Nearly two-thirds of all U.S. Latinos are of Mexican origin.

Overall, the poll found that Latinos are assimilating into U.S. society in a distinctive manner that preserves ties to ancestral lands and some traditional attitudes about family. “The melting pot is still quite powerful,” said Suro.

Some findings ran counter to widely held perceptions. For example, the poll found that the degree of assimilation into U.S. society is more powerful than national origin in shaping the attitudes of Latinos. And discrimination by Latinos against other Latinos is seen as similar to bias in society at large.

“The sense of discrimination [by other Latinos] is not based on race, but rather it is economic, and, in some cases, due to country of origin,” Suro said.

On the whole, Latinos are optimistic about the United States, the poll found. Nearly 90% said they believe opportunities to get ahead are better here than in their home countries. Among Latinos born outside the U.S., 28% said they are already citizens, and an additional 52% said they are planning to apply for citizenship.

English becomes the dominant language among Latinos within a generation. While 72% of the immigrant generation said Spanish was their primary language, only 7% of second-generation Latinos had the same response. Among the third and subsequent generations, 78% said English was their primary language, and 22% described themselves as bilingual.

Speaking English and being born in the United States are key variables in the assimilation of Latinos. “English-dominant Latinos share views with non-Hispanic whites that are very different from their Spanish-dominant counterparts,” said Mollyann Brodie, polling director at the Kaiser foundation.

For example, 22% of Latino immigrants agreed with the statement that success in the American workplace requires working long hours at the expense of one’s personal life. Among U.S.-born Latinos, 40% said long hours are the price of success. By comparison, 46% of non-Latino whites answered similarly.

U.S.-born Latinos were more likely than immigrants to be accepting of divorce, homosexuality and having children outside of marriage.

On the importance of family, however, U.S.-born Latinos line up more closely with their forebears. Eighty-two percent said relatives were more important than friends, compared with 67% of non-Latino whites.

Regardless of birthplace, the poll found that a majority of Latinos cited discrimination as a barrier to success in America. Immigrants were more likely than those born in the United States to describe it as a major problem.

Latinos also cited discrimination by other Latinos as pervasive. Among the foreign-born, 57% said it is a major obstacle, while the U.S.-born were more likely to see it as a minor aggravation.

Differences in income and education were cited by 41% as the main reason Latinos discriminate against each other, while 34% cited country of origin and 8% cited differences in skin color.

Colombians were the most likely to cite discrimination by other Latinos as a major problem, followed by Dominicans and Salvadorans.

Experiencing Bias

When asked whether they or a close friend or relative had personally experienced discrimination in the last five years, 31% of Latinos said they had, compared with 46% of African Americans and 13% of non-Latino whites.

Latinos were most likely to identify themselves by using their family’s country of origin. A majority said they do not fit in the traditional white/black racial categories of American society.

Most Latinos see no difference between the terms “Hispanic” and “Latino,” the poll found. Among those who expressed a preference, 34% said they favored Hispanic, while 13% favored Latino.

In California, 32% preferred Hispanic, while 17% picked Latino.

To allow comparisons with other groups in American society, the survey also interviewed whites and African Americans. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.4 percentage points for Latinos overall, and higher for other groups.