Below are a set of recent findings from the Pew Research Center and Pew Hispanic Center that provide background on a range of issues raised by the new Arizona law. The findings are drawn mainly from nationwide surveys conducted in 2008 and 2009.

• Americans see Hispanics as the racial/ethnic group most often subjected to discrimination: A 2009 survey by the Pew Research Center found that nearly one-in-four (23%) Americans said Hispanics are discriminated against “a lot” in society today, a share higher than observed for any other group (Pew Social and Demographic Trends, 2010). This represents a change from 2001, when blacks were seen as the racial/ethnic group discriminated against the most in society. Then, one-in-four (25%) Americans said blacks were discriminated against “a lot,” while 19% said the same about Hispanics.
• Hispanics are the ethnic group most likely to be illegal immigrants. Nationally, there were an estimated 11.9 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. in 2008. Three-quarters (76%) are Hispanic (Passel and Cohn, 2009).
• As the number of illegal immigrants in the United States has grown, so too have the number of deportations. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, the estimated number of undocumented immigrants increased from 3 million in 1980 to 11.9 million in 2008, a four-fold increase. The increase in the number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. coincides with an increase in the number of deportations, or removals, done by the federal government.² According to the Department of Homeland Security, nearly 359,000 immigrants were removed in 2008, up from 18,000 in 1980.³
• A majority of Hispanics worry that they, or someone they know, will be deported. Nearly six-in-ten (57%) Latinos, in a 2008 Pew Hispanic Center survey, said they worried that they themselves or a family member, or a close friend may be deported. The foreign born were more likely than the native born to say this—73% versus 35% (Lopez and Minushkin, 2008).
• One-in-ten Hispanics say that they have been asked by police or other authorities about their immigration status. According to the Pew Hispanic Center’s 2008 National Survey of Latinos, nearly one-in-ten (9%) Hispanics said they had been stopped by the police or other authorities and asked about their immigration status in the year prior to the survey, with the native born and foreign born equally likely to have said this (Lopez and Minushkin, 2008).
• A sizeable minority of Hispanics say they, or someone they know, has experienced discrimination. According to a 2009 Pew Hispanic Center survey of Hispanics ages 16 and older, one-third (32%) say they, a family member, or a close friend have experienced discrimination in the five years prior to the survey because of their racial or ethnic background (Pew Hispanic Center, 2009). This is down from the 41% of Latino adults who said the same in 2007, but is not much different from the share of Latinos in previous Pew Hispanic Center surveys who said they or someone they know had experienced discrimination. When asked about specific instances of discrimination, 64% of Latino adults identified discrimination against Hispanics in schools as a major problem and 58% of Latino adults said the same about the workplace (Pew Hispanic Center, 2007).
• Fewer than half of Latinos say they are confident that police officers in their community treat Hispanics fairly. According to the 2008 National Survey of Latinos, 45% of Latinos said they had a great deal or fair amount of confidence that police officers in their communities would treat Latinos fairly. This is lower than the share (74%) of whites who say police officers in their communities treat blacks and whites equally, but higher than the share (37%) of blacks who say the same (Lopez and Livingston, 2009).
• Eight-in-ten Hispanics say local police should not be involved in identifying undocumented or illegal immigrants. According to the Pew Hispanic Center’s 2008 National Survey of Latinos, 81% of Hispanics said enforcement of immigration laws should be left mainly to the federal authorities while just 12% said local police should take an active role (Lopez and Minushkin, 2008). Among the general public, opinion is split—in 2007, half (49%) of non-Hispanics said enforcement should be left mainly to federal authorities, while 45% said local police should take an active role (Pew Hispanic Center, 2007).
• A majority of Hispanics oppose a range of other immigration enforcement measures. In 2008, three-in-four (76%) Hispanics said they disapproved of workplace raids, 73% disapproved of the criminal prosecution of undocumented immigrants, 70% disapproved of the criminal prosecution of employers, and more than half (53%) disapproved of employees database checks to identify the eligibility of potential employees. (Lopez and Minushkin, 2008).
• Hispanics in Arizona. According to Pew Hispanic Center tabulations from the 2008 American Community Survey, there are 2 million Hispanics in Arizona, representing 30% of the state’s population. One-third (33%) of Arizona Hispanics are foreign born.⁴
• Undocumented Immigrants in Arizona: The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that approximately 500,000 undocumented immigrants resided in Arizona in 2008.⁵ Nearly all (94%) of these undocumented immigrants are from Mexico. Moreover, approximately 10% of Arizona’s workforce is undocumented (Passel and Cohn, 2009).

Hispanics are the largest and youngest minority group in the United States. One- in-five schoolchildren is Hispanic. One-in-four newborns is Hispanic. Never before in this country’s history has a minority ethnic group made up so large a share of the youngest Americans. By force of numbers alone, the kinds of adults these young Latinos become will help shape the kind of society America becomes in the 21st century.

This report takes an in-depth look at Hispanics who are ages 16 to 25, a phase of life when young people make choices that—for better and worse—set their path to adulthood. For this particular ethnic group, it is also a time when they navigate the intricate, often porous borders between the two cultures they inhabit—American and Latin American.

The report explores the attitudes, values, social behaviors, family characteristics, economic well-being, educational attainment and labor force outcomes of these young Latinos. It is based on a new Pew Hispanic Center telephone surveyof a nationally representative sample of 2,012 Latinos, supplemented by the Center’s analysis of government demographic, economic, education and health data sets.

The data paint a mixed picture. Young Latinos are satisfied with their lives, optimistic about their futures and place a high value on education, hard work and career success. Yet they are much more likely than other American youths to drop out of school and to become teenage parents. They are more likely than white and Asian youths to live in poverty. And they have high levels of exposure to gangs.

These are attitudes and behaviors that, through history, have often been associated with the immigrant experience. But most Latino youths are not immigrants. Two-thirds were born in the United States, many of them descendants of the big, ongoing wave of Latin American immigrants who began coming to this country around 1965.

As might be expected, they do better than their foreign-born counterparts on many key economic, social and acculturation indicators analyzed in this report. They are much more proficient in English and are less likely to drop out of high school, live in poverty or become a teen parent.

But on a number of other measures, U.S.-born Latino youths do no better than the foreign born. And on some fronts, they do worse.

For example, native-born Latino youths are about twice as likely as the foreign born to have ties to a gang or to have gotten into a fight or to have carried a weapon in the past year. They are also more likely to be in prison.

The picture becomes even more murky when comparisons are made among youths who are first generation (immigrants themselves), second generation (U.S.-born children of immigrants) and third and higher generation (U.S.-born grandchildren or more far-removed descendants of immigrants).¹

For example, teen parenthood rates and high school dropout rates are much lower among the second generation than the first, but they appear higher among the third generation than the second. The same is true for poverty rates.

Identity and Assimilation

Throughout this nation’s history, immigrant assimilation has always meant something morethan the sum of the sorts of economic and social measures outlined above. It also has a psychological dimension. Over the course of several generations, the immigrant family typically loosens its sense of identity from the old country andbinds it to the new.

It is too soon to tell if this process will playout for today’s Hispanic immigrants antheir offspring in the same way it did fthe European immigrants of the 19th and early 20 centuries. But whatever the ultimate trajectory, it is clear that many of today’s Latino youths, be they first or second generation, are straddling two worlds as they adapt to the new homeland.

According to the Pew Hispanic Center’s National Survey of Latinos, more than half (52%) of Latinos ages 16 to 25 identify themselves first by their family’s country of origin, be it Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador or any of more than a dozen other Spanish-speaking countries. An additional 20% generally use the terms “Hispanic” or “Latino” first when describing themselves. Only about one-in-four (24%) generally use the term “American” first.

Among the U.S.-born children of immigrants, “American” is somewhat more commonly used as a primary term of self-identification. Even so, just 33% of these young second generation Latinos use American first, while 21% refer to themselves first by the terms Hispanic or Latino, and theplurality—41%—refer to themselves first by the country their parents left in order to settle and raise their children in this country.

Only in the third and higher generations do a majority of Hispanic youths (50%) use “American” as their first term of self-description.

Immigration in Historical Perspective

Measured in raw numbers, the modern Latin American-dominated immigration wave is by far the largest in U.S. history. Nearly 40 million immigrants have come to the United States since 1965. About half are from Latin America, a quarter from Asia and the remainder from Europe, Canada, the Middle East and Africa. By contrast, about 14 million immigrants came during the big Northern and Western European immigration wave of the 19th century and about 18 million came during the big Southern and Eastern European-dominated immigration wave of the early 20th century.²

However, the population of the United States was much smaller during those earlier waves. When measured against the size of the U.S. population during the period when the immigration occurred, the modern wave’s average annual rate of 4.6 new immigrants per 1,000 population falls well below the 7.7 annual rate that prevailed in the mid- to late 19th century and the 8.8 rate at the beginning of the 20th century.

All immigration waves produce backlashes of one kind or another, and the lateone is no exception. Illegal immigration, in particular, has become a highly-charged political issue in recent times. It is also a relatively new phenomenon; past immigration waves did not generate large numbers of illegal immigrants because the U.S. imposed fewer restrictions on immigration flow in the past than it does now.

The current wave may differ from earlier waves in other ways as well. Moire than a few immigration scholars have voiced skepticism that the children and the grandchildren of today’s Hispanic immigrants will enjoy the same upward mobility experienced by the offspring of European immigrants in previous centuries.³

Their reasons vary, and not all are consistent with one another. Some scholars point to structural changes in modern economies that make it more difficult for unskilled laborers to climb into the middle class. Some say the illegal status of so many of today’s immigrants is a major obstacle to their upward mobility. Some say the close proximity of today’s sending countries and the relative ease of modern global communication reduce the felt need of immigrants and their families to acculturate to their new country. Some say the fatalism of Latin American cultures is a poor fit in a society built on Anglo-Saxon values. Some say that America’s growing tolerance for cultural diversity may encourage modern immigrants and their offspring to retain ethnic identities that were seen by yesterday’s immigrants as a handicap. (The melting pot is dead. Long live the salad bowl.) Alternatively, some say that Latinos’ brown skin makes assimilation difficult in a country where white remains the racial norm.

It will probably take at least another generation’s worth of new facts on the ground to know whether these theories have merit. But it is not too soon to take some snapshots and lay down some markers. This report does so by assembling a wide range of empirical evidence (some generated by our own new survey; some by our analysis of government data) and subjecting it to a series of comparisons: between Latinos and non-Latinos; between young Latinos and older Latinos; between foreign-born Latinos and native-born Latinos; and between first, second, and third and higher generations of Latinos.

The generational analyses presented here do not compare the outcomes of individual Latino immigrants with those of their own children or grandchildren. Instead, our generational analysis compares today’s young Latino immigrants with today’s children and grandchildren of yesterday’s immigrants. As such, the report can provide some insights into the intergenerational mobility of an immigrant group over time. But it cannot fully disentangle the many factors that may help explain the observed patterns—be they compositional effects (the different skills, education levels and other forms of human capital that different cohorts of immigrants bring) or period effects (the different economic conditions that confront immigrants in different time periods).

Readers should be especially careful when interpreting findings about the third and higher generation, for this is a very diverse group. We estimate that about 40% are the grandchildren of Latin American immigrants, while the remainder can trace their roots in this country much farther back in time.

For some in this mixed group, endemic poverty and its attendant social ills have been a part of their families, barrios and colonias for generations, even centuries. Meantime, others in the third and higher generation have been upwardly mobile in ways consistent with the generational trajectories of European immigrant groups. Because the data we use in this report do not allow us to separate out the different demographic sub-groups within the third and higher generation, the overall numbers we present are averages that often mask large variances within this group.

A summary of the major findings of the report:

Demography

• Two-thirds of Hispanics ages 16 to 25 are native-born Americans. That figure may surprise those who think of Latinos mainly as immigrants. But the four-decade-old Hispanic immigration wave is now mature enough to have spawned a big second generation of U.S.-born children who are on the cusp of adulthood. Back in 1995, nearly half of all Latinos ages 16 to 25 were immigrants. This year marks the first time that a plurality (37%) of Latinos in this age group are the U.S.-born children of immigrants. An additional 29% are of third-and-higher generations. Just 34% are immigrants themselves.
• Hispanics are not only the largest minority population in the United States, they are also the youngest. Their median age is 27, compared with 31 for blacks, 36 for Asians and 41 for whites. One-quarter of all newborns in the United States are Hispanic.
• About 17% of all Hispanics and 22% of all Hispanic youths ages 16 to 25 are unauthorized immigrants, according to Pew Hispanic Center estimates. Some 41% of all foreign-born Hispanics and 58% of foreign-born Hispanic youths are estimated to be unauthorized immigrants.
• Latinos make up about 18% of all youths in the U.S. ages 16 to 25. However, their share is far higher in a number of states. They make up 51% of all youths in New Mexico, 42% in California, 40% in Texas, 36% in Arizona, 31% in Nevada, 24% in Florida, and 24% in Colorado.
• More than two-thirds (68%) of young Latinos are of Mexican heritage. They are growing up in families that on average have less “educational capital” than do other Latinos. More than four-in-ten young Latinos of Mexican origin say their mothers (42%) and fathers (44%) have less than a high school diploma, compared with about one-quarter of non-Mexican-heritage young Latinos who say the same.

Identity and Parental Socialization

• Asked which term they generally use first to describe themselves, young Hispanics show a strong preference for their family’s country of origin (52%) over American (24%) or the terms Hispanic or Latino (20%). Among the U.S.-born children of immigrants, the share that identifies first as American rises to one-in-three, and among the third and higher generations, it rises to half.
• Young Hispanics are being socialized in a family setting that places a strong emphasis on their Latin American roots. More say their parents have often spoken to them of their pride in their family’s country of origin than say their parents have often talked to them of their pride in being American—42% versus 29%. More say they have often been encouraged by their parents to speak in Spanish than say they have often been encouraged to speak only in English—60% versus 22%. The survey also finds that the more likely young Latinos are to receive these kinds of signals from their parents, the more likely they are to refer to themselves first by their country of origin.
• By a ratio of about two-to-one, young Hispanics say there are more cultural differences (64%) than commonalities (33%) within the Hispanic community in the U.S. At the same time, about two-thirds (64%) say that Latinos from different countries get along well with each other in the U.S., while about one-third say they do not.
• Most young Hispanics do not see themselves fitting into the race framework of the U.S. Census Bureau. More than three-in-four (76%) say their race is “some other race” or volunteer that their race is “Hispanic or Latino.” Young Hispanics also do not see their race in the same way as Hispanics ages 26 and older. Only 16% of Hispanic youths identify themselves as white, while nearly twice as many (30%) older Hispanics identify their race as white.

Language

• About one-third (36%) of Latinos ages 16 to 25 are English dominant in their language patterns, while 41% are bilingual and 23% are Spanish dominant.
• The language usage patterns of Latinos change dramatically from the immigrant generation to the native born. Among foreign-born Latinos ages 16 to 25, just 48% say they can speak English very well or pretty well. Among their native-born counterparts, that figures doubles to 98%.
• For the children of immigrants and later generations, embracing English does not necessarily mean abandoning Spanish. Fully 79% of the second generation and 38% of the third report that they are proficient in speaking Spanish. These figures are below the share of immigrant youths who are proficient in Spanish (89%), but they demonstrate the resilience of the mother tongue for several generations after immigration.
• For both native-born and foreign-born young Hispanics, the boundaries between English and Spanish are permeable. Seven-in-ten (70%) say that when speaking with family members and friends, they often or sometimes use a hybrid known as “Spanglish” that mixes words from both languages.

Teenage Parenthood

• Young Hispanic females have the highest rates of teen parenthood of any major racial or ethnic group in the country. According to the Center’s analysis of Census data, about one-in-four young Hispanic females (26%) becomes a mother by age 19. This compares with a rate of 22% among young black females, 11% among young white females, and 6% among young Asian females.
• Notwithstanding those numbers, the rate of births to Hispanic females ages 15 to 19 declined by 18% from 1990 to 2007. But among the full population, the rate of births to teenagers in this age group declined by 29% during the same period.
• A heavy majority of older Latinos (81%) and Latino youths (75%) say that more teenage girls having babies is a bad thing for society. Even higher shares of the full U.S. population say the same thing—94% of all adults and 90% of all 18- to 25-year-olds.
• About seven-in-ten (69%) Latino youths say that becoming a teen parent prevents a person from reaching one’s goals in life; 28% disagree.
• Native-born Latino youths have a somewhat more negative view of teen parenthood than do the foreign born. Some 71% of the second generation and 78% of the third say teen parenthood interferes with one’s goals in life. Just 62% of foreign-born youths agree. The pattern is the same on the question of whether more teen parenthood is bad for society.
• On average, Hispanic females are projected to have just over three children in their lifetime. In comparison, African-American women are projected to have an average of 2.15 children in their lifetime, and for whites this number is 1.86.

Life Priorities and Satisfaction

• Like most youths, young Latinos express high levels of satisfaction with their lives, with half saying they are “very” satisfied and 45% saying they are “mostly” satisfied. They are also optimistic about their futures. More than seven-in-ten (72%) expect to be better off financially than their parents, while just 4% expect to be worse off. Optimism on this question runs a bit higher among native-born Latinos (75%) than among the foreign born (66%).
• Even more so than other youths, young Latinos have high aspirations for career success. Some 89% say it is very important in their lives, compared with 80% of the full population of 18- to 25-year-olds who say the same.
• Other life priorities rank a bit lower among Latino youths. About half say that having children (55%), living a religious life (51%) and being married (48%) are very important to their lives; about a quarter (24%) say the same about being wealthy. All of these ratings are very similar to those made by non-Latino youths.
• Latinos believe in the rewards of hard work. More than eight-in-ten—including 80% of Latino youths and 86% of Latinos ages 26 and older—say that most people can get ahead in life if they work hard.
• Nearly four-in-ten (38%) young Latinos say they, a relative or close friend has been the target of ethnic or racial discrimination. This is higher than the share of older Latinos who say the same (31%). Also, perceptions of discrimination are more widespread among native-born (41%) than foreign-born (32%) young Latinos.

Educational Expectations and Attainment

• The high school dropout rate among Latino youths (17%) is nearly three times as high as it is among white youths (6%) and nearly double the rate among blacks (9%). Rates for all groups have been declining for decades.
• The high school dropout rate for the second generation of Latino youth (9%) is higher than the rate for whites (6%) and Asians (4%) but comparable to the rate for blacks (9%).
• Nearly all Latino youths (89%) and older adults (88%) agree with the statement that a college degree is important for getting ahead in life. However, just under half of Latinos ages 18 to 25 say they plan to get a college degree.
• The reason most often given by Latino youths who cut off their education before college is financial pressure to support a family. Nearly three-quarters of this group say this is a big reason for not continuing in school. About half cite poor English skills; about four-in-ten cite a dislike of school or a belief that they do not need more education for the careers they plan to pursue.
• Native-born Latino youths go much farther in school than do their foreign-born counterparts. Among 16- to 24-year-olds who were born abroad, just 21% are enrolled in high school. Among their native-born counterparts, 38% of second-generation and 32% of third-generation young Latinos are enrolled in high school.
• The high school completion rate (89%) and the college enrollment rate (46%) for second generation Latino youths are similar to those of whites in this cohort, 94% of whom have completed high school and 46% of whom are enrolled in college. However, second generation Latinos who attend college are only about half as likely as white college students to complete a bachelor’s degree (Fry, 2002).

Economic Well-Being

• The household income of young Latinos lags well behind that of young whites and is slightly ahead of young blacks. Poverty rates follow the same pattern: Some 23% of young Latinos live in poverty, compared with 13% of young whites and 28% of young blacks.
• The poverty rate among young Latinos declines significantly from the first generation (29%) to the second (19%). The rate for the third and higher generations is 21%.
• Foreign-born Latino youths are more likely to be working or looking for work than the native born (64% versus 56%) and have lower rates of unemployment (17% versus 23%). Labor market activity and unemployment among foreign-born Latino youths match that of all youth.
• Foreign-born Latino youths are much more likely than their native-born counterparts to be employed in lower-skill occupations. More than half (52%) of all employed foreign-born youths are in food preparation and serving; construction and extraction; building, grounds cleaning and maintenance; and production occupations, compared with 27% of native-born Latino youths. The native born are more dispersed across occupations, including in relativity high-skill occupations.

Gangs, Fights, Weapons, Jail

• About three-in-ten (31%) young Latinos say they have a friend or relative who is a current or former gang member. This degree of familiarity with gangs is much more prevalent among the native born than the foreign born—40% versus 17%.
• The same pattern applies to other risk behaviors explored in the survey. Some 17% of native-born Latino youths say they got into a fight in the past year, compared with just 7% of foreign-born youths. Some 7% of the native born say they carried a weapon in the past year, nearly double the 3% share of foreign born who say the same. And 26% of the native born say they were questioned by police for any reason in the past year, compared with 15% of the foreign born.
• Mexican-heritage young Latinos have more experience with gangs than other young Latinos. More than half (56%) say gangs were in their schools, while just four-in-ten (40%) other young Latinos say the same. In addition, young Latinos of Mexican origin are nearly twice as likely as other young Latinos to say that a friend or a relative is a member of a gang—37% versus 19%.
• About 3% of young Hispanic males (ages 16 to 25) were incarcerated in 2008, compared with 7% of young black males and 1% of young white males. Native-born young male Hispanics are more likely than their foreign-born counterparts to be incarcerated—3% versus 2%.

About this Report

This report is the work of the entire Pew Hispanic Center staff. The overview (Chapter 1) was written by the Center’s Director Paul Taylor, who also served as overall editor. Chapters 2 and 5 were written by Associate Director for Research Rakesh Kochhar. Chapters 4 and 8 were written by Senior Researcher Gretchen Livingston. Chapters 3 and 7 were written by Associate Director Mark Hugo Lopez. Chapter 6 was written by Kochhar and Lopez. Chapter 9 was written by Rich Morin, Senior Editor of the Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends project (www.pewsocialtrends.org), and Senior Research Associate Richard Fry. Senior Demographer Jeffrey S. Passel tabulated immigration statistics and provided guidance on the demographic portions of this report. The topline was compiled by Daniel Dockterman and Gabriel Velasco. The report was copy-edited by Marcia Kramer of Kramer Editing Services. It was number checked by Daniel Dockterman, Gabriel Velasco and Wendy Wang.

Lopez took the lead in developing the survey questionnaire, assisted by the colleagues listed above and also by Ana González-Barrera, Jennifer Medina, Cristina Mercado and Kim Parker. The authors also thank González-Barrera for helping to compile demographic statistics and Mercado for helping to coordinate the focus groups and transcribe focus group recordings. Daniel Dockterman and Gabriel Velasco provided outstanding support for the production of the report.

About the Survey

The 2009 National Survey of Latinos was conducted from Aug. 5 through Sept. 16, 2009, among a randomly selected, nationally representative sample of 2,012 Hispanics ages 16 and older, with an oversample of 1,240 Hispanics ages 16 to 25. The survey was conducted in both English and Spanish, on cellular as well as landline telephones. The margin of error for the full sample is plus or minus 3.7 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. The margin of error for respondents ages 16 to 25 is plus or minus 4.6 percentage points, and the margin of error for respondents ages 26 and older is plus or minus 4.8 percentage points.

Interviews were conducted for the Pew Hispanic Center by Social Science Research Solutions (SSRS).

A Note on Terminology

The terms “Latino” and “Hispanic” are used interchangeably in this report.

The term “youths” refers to 16- to 25-year olds unless otherwise indicated. In this report, the terms “Latino youths,” “young Latinos” and “young adults” are used interchangeably.

All references to whites, blacks, Asians and others are to the non-Hispanic components of those populations.

“Foreign born” refers to persons born outside of the United States to parents neither of whom was a U.S. citizen. Foreign born also refers to those born in Puerto Rico. Although individuals born in Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens by birth, they are included among the foreign born because they are born into a Spanish-dominant culture and because on many points their attitudes, views and beliefs are much closer to Hispanics born abroad than to Latinos born in the 50 states or the District of Columbia, even those who identify themselves as being of Puerto Rican origin.

“Native born” or “U.S. born” refers to persons born in the United States and those born abroad to parents at least one of whom was a U.S. citizen.

Unless otherwise noted, this report uses the following definitions of the first, second, and third and higher generations:

First generation: Same as foreign born above. The terms “foreign born,” “first generation” and “immigrant” are used interchangeably in this report.

Second generation: Born in the United States, with at least one first-generation parent.

Third and higher generation: Born in the United States, with both parents born in the United States. This report uses the term “third generation” as shorthand for “third and higher generation.”

Language dominance is a composite measure based on self-described assessments of speaking and reading abilities. Spanish-dominant persons are more proficient in Spanish than in English, i.e., they speak and read Spanish “very well” or “pretty well” but rate their English speaking and reading ability lower. Bilingual refers to persons who are proficient in both English and Spanish. English-dominant persons are more proficient in English than in Spanish.

Recommended Citation

Pew Hispanic Center. “Between Two Worlds: How Young Latinos Come of Age in America,” Washington, D.C. (December 11, 2009).

About the Focus Groups

The Pew Hispanic Center conducted seven focus groups during the summer of 2009 to help inform the development of the survey questionnaire and to ask young Latinos about the issues that are important to them. Mark Hugo Lopez, Cristina Mercado, Ana González-Barrera and Jennifer Medina moderated the focus groups. Focus groups were held in Los Angeles; San Jose, Calif.; Chicago; Orange, N.J.; Silver Spring, Md.; Langley Park, Md.; and the District of Columbia. Diego Uriburu of Identity Inc. of Gaithersburg, Md., helped to organize the Silver Spring and Langley Park focus groups, and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus helped to organize the one in Washington, D.C. All groups were composed of Latinos between the ages of 16 and 25. Focus group participants were told that what they said might be quoted in the report, but we promised not to identify them by name. The quotations interspersed throughout the report are drawn from these groups.

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 25¹ 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, according to a comprehensive analysis of four decades of Census Bureau data by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center.

The growth over time in the share of youths involved in such market-oriented activities is not limited to Latinos. Similar changes have occurred among black and white youths. But the Latino trends are particularly noteworthy because their share of the young adult population has risen so dramatically during this period—to 18% in 2007, more than triple their 5% share in 1970.

The increase in their attachment to school or the work world (which includes employment by the military) has been driven mainly by the changes in the endeavors of young Hispanic females. In 1970, only one-third of young female Hispanics were enrolled in school or college; by 2007, nearly half of young female Hispanics were pursuing schooling.

The labor force participation of young female Latinos has also grown during this time period, from 40% in 1970 to 54% in 2007.

Even with these gains, however, nearly one-in-five (19%) female Latino young adults in 2007 were not in school or in the work force. This figure exceeds the 16% share of young black men who were not in school or in the work force, a surprising comparison in light of the fact that the labor market and schooling difficulties of young black men have received much more public attention than have those of young Hispanic women.

In the case of young Latinas, motherhood accounts for some—but not most—of their detachment from work and school. Birthrates among young Latino women are higher than those of whites or blacks, but these rates have been falling for decades. In 1970, two-thirds of the young Hispanic women who were not in school or the work force were mothers; by 2007, this share had dropped to less than a majority.

Looking more broadly at the changing pathways into adulthood across all dimensions of race and ethnicity, Hispanic youths (young men and women combined) lagged behind white youths in 2007 by about the same gap that their counterparts trailed whites in 1970. In 2007, 93% of white youths were either in school or working, compared with 86% of Hispanic youths. As Table 1 shows, Hispanics also had a lower school enrollment rate (44%) in 2007 than either white (58%) or black (53%) youths. The labor force participation rate of young Hispanics in 2007—62%—also trailed the rate of white youths (66%), due to the lower labor force participation of young Hispanic females.

Meanwhile, engagement rates for Hispanic and black youths were identical in 2007 (86%), and they were also very close in 1970 (77% and 78%, respectively). The growing attachment of Latino youth with school and work comes during an era of dramatic changes in the U.S. economy. For those without a college degree, the pathways into middle-income status appeared to vanish with the rapid loss of manufacturing jobs.² The income gap between those with a college degree and those without increased steadily from the 1970s onwards (Pew Research Center, 2008).

Another major development since 1970 is the entry of women into the labor force in large numbers. In 1970, only 43% of all women were working or looking for work. That share rose to 60% by 1999.³

This report analyzes the changing pathways of Latino and other youth into adulthood from 1970 to 2007. In addition to exploring their school and work patterns, it reviews trends in military service and incarceration among young men. For young women, the report also focuses on motherhood.

Patterns in Education

Young Hispanics’ growing pursuit of schooling since 1970 has occurred at both the secondary and postsecondary levels. Hispanic high school dropout rates have sharply declined since 1970, when more than one-third of young Hispanics were high school dropouts. By 2007, fewer than one-fifth were dropouts.

College enrollment has also expanded among Hispanic youths. In 1970, only 25% of young Hispanic high school completers were enrolled in college at the time of interview. By 2007, almost 40% of Hispanic high school completers were pursuing college.

But white and black youths are also increasingly staying in school and attending college, and Hispanic youths continue to trail white and black youths in school enrollment. In 2007, for example, 19% of Hispanic youths were high school dropouts, compared with 10% of black youths and 5% of white youths.

Labor Force Participation

The most notable development is in the increase in labor force participation—share of young adults at work or looking for work—among women. In 1970, 40% of young Latino women were at work or looking for work (whether or not they were also enrolled in school or college). That share rose to 54% by 2007. Among young Latino men the labor force participation rate increased from 65% in 1970 to 68% in 2007. Male Latino youth are active in the labor force at the same rate as male white youth and the share of either exceeds the share of male black youth. However, in spite of the increase in labor force participation by young Hispanic women, they continue to have the lowest rate of labor force participation of all the race/gender groups examined.

Marriage and Parenting

Young Hispanics’ growing pursuit of school or the work world since 1970 reflects changes in patterns of marriage and parenting. During this period, young women, including young Hispanic women, have grown less likely to marry during their youth (Landale, Oropesa, and Bradatan, 2006). They have also become less likely to be mothers. In 1970, 35% of young Hispanic females were mothers. By 2007, only 21% were mothers. Young mothers are less likely than other young women to continue their schooling. As young motherhood has waned, young Hispanics’ pursuit of market-oriented pathways has grown.

Other Pathways: Military Down, Prison Up

One pathway into adulthood that has significantly diminished for young Hispanics is military service. In 1970, at a time when a military draft was in place, 5% of young Hispanic males were in the armed forces. By 2007, only 1% of young Hispanic males were in the military. White and black male youth employment in the military has also declined since 1970. For example, 2% of young white males were in the armed forces in 2007, down from 8% in 1970.

A pathway that has grown more common over time—albeit from a small base—is prison or jail. By 1990, about 2% of Hispanic youths were incarcerated, up from less than 1% in 1970. There has been little change in the incarceration share since 1990. The share of white youths incarcerated has remained about 1% since 1970. Black youths incarceration peaked at about 5% in 2000 and has since declined to 4% in 2007.

Immigration and Demographics

The sharp growth in the Hispanic share of this 16 to 25 age group has been driven by a combination of high immigration levels and high birthrates among Latino immigrants. These trends in turn have altered the demographic profile of Latino youths. The white and African-American youth populations continue to be largely native born. In contrast, the origins of Latino youths have shifted since 1970—not once but twice. In 1970, only one-third of Hispanic youths were foreign born. By 2000, almost half of Hispanic youths were immigrants. Since then, the share of Hispanic youths who are foreign born has receded (to 39% by 2007) as more Latino young adults are the children of the immigrants who arrived in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

About this Report

This report was prepared for the Education Writers Association, Pew Hispanic Center and National Panel on Latino Children and Schooling conference entitled “Latino Children, Families and Schooling.” The conference was held on Tuesday, October 6, 2009.

This report presents a comprehensive analysis of the basic activities or pathways of Hispanic, white and black youths ages 16 to 25. Using data on youths from the Decennial Census micro data files of 1970, 1980, 1990 and 2000 and the comparable U.S. Census Bureau’s 2007 American Community Survey (ACS), all youths residing in the United States are analyzed and thus the important pathways of service in the military as well as incarceration in correctional facilities can be quantified.

A Note on Terminology

The terms “Latino” and “Hispanic” are used interchangeably in this report, as are the terms “foreign born” and “immigrant.” Hispanics born in the 50 states or the District of Columbia are considered “native born.” Hispanics born in outlying areas of the United States (including Puerto Rico) and other countries are defined as “foreign born.”

All references to whites and blacks are to the non-Hispanic components of those populations.

The labor force includes the employed and the unemployed. Those employed in the armed forces are included in the labor force.

“Incarcerated” refers to males institutionalized in prisons and jails, hospitals, and juvenile institutions. See Appendix B for details.

Recommended Citation

Richard Fry. The Changing Pathways of Hispanic Youths Into Adulthood. Washington, DC: Pew Hispanic Center, 2009.

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.¹

Six-in-ten (61%) Hispanics say they have a great deal or a fair amount of confidence that the police in their local communities will do a good job enforcing the law, compared with 78% of whites and 55% of blacks. Just under half (46%) of Hispanics say they have confidence that police officers will not use excessive force on suspects, compared with 73% of whites and 38% of blacks. Similarly, just under half of Hispanics say they are confident that police officers will treat Hispanics fairly (45%) and that courts will treat Hispanics fairly (49%). In comparison, 74% of whites and 37% of blacks say they have confidence that the police will treat blacks and whites equally (Pew Social & Demographic Trends, 2007).

In recent decades, Hispanics’ exposure to all parts of the criminal justice system has risen even faster than their rising share of the U.S. adult population. In state, federal and local prisons and jails, the share of inmates who were Hispanic increased from 16% in 2000 to 20% in 2008 (West and Sabol, 2009). During this period, the share of Hispanics in the adult U.S. population rose from 11% to 13%.

Overall, according to the Pew Center on the States, some 4% of adult Hispanics in 2007 were either in prison or jail or on probation or parole. This is larger than the share of whites (2%) who were under some form of corrections control in 2007 and smaller than the share of blacks (9%).

As for rates of violent crime victimization, Hispanic levels (28.4 per 1,000 individuals) were higher than those of whites (23.9 per 1,000) and lower than those of blacks (32.9 per 1,000) in 2006 (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2008).² In the past 15 years, rates of victimization for all three groups have fallen by more than half (Catalano, 2006).

This report is based on a bilingual telephone survey of a nationally representative sample of 2,015 Hispanics ages 18 and older. Interviews were conducted from June 9 through July 13, 2008, by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center. The margin of error for the sample is plus or minus 2.8 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. For a description of the survey methodology, see Appendix 1.

Other key findings of the report:

• More than one-third (35%) of Latinos report that there are areas within a mile of their home where they are afraid to walk alone at night, similar to the share of the general population that feels the same way (37%).
• More than three-quarters (78%) of Hispanics say that if they were a victim of a violent crime, they would definitely report that crime to the police.
• Overall, more than half (56%) of Latinos say they or an immediate family member had contact with the criminal justice system in the previous five years. Contact includes reporting a crime to the police, serving on a jury, being arrested, being on probation or parole, or serving time in jail or prison.
• Among all Hispanics, 27% say they or an immediate family member had reported a crime in the previous five years.
• Nearly one-quarter (23%) of Hispanics say they or an immediate family member had been questioned by the police (for any reason) in the previous five years.
• Among all Hispanics, 15% say they or someone in their immediate family had been arrested in the previous five years.
• Some 17% of Latinos say they or an immediate family member had been under some kind of criminal corrections control in the previous five years.

About this Report

The 2008 National Survey of Latinos asked Hispanic adults about their views of the police and courts in their communities, their perceptions of crime and any interaction they or their immediate family members have had with the criminal justice system. The survey was conducted from June 9 through July 13, 2008, among a randomly selected, nationally representative sample of 2,015 Hispanic adults. The survey was conducted in both English and Spanish. The margin of error for the full sample is plus or minus 2.8 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

A Note on Terminology

The terms “Latino” and “Hispanic” are used interchangeably in this report, as are the terms “foreign born” and “immigrant.”

The terms “whites” and “blacks” are used to refer to the non-Hispanic components of their population unless otherwise noted.

Sharp growth in illegal immigration and increased enforcement of immigration laws have dramatically altered the ethnic composition of offenders sentenced in federal courts. In 2007, Latinos accounted for 40% of all sentenced federal offenders—more than triple their share (13%) of the total U.S. adult population. The share of all sentenced offenders who were Latino in 2007 was up from 24% in 1991, according to an analysis of data from the United States Sentencing Commission (USSC) by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center.

Between 1991 and 2007, enforcement of federal immigration laws became a growing priority in response to undocumented immigration.¹ By 2007, immigration offenses represented nearly one-quarter (24%) of all federal convictions, up from just 7% in 1991. Among those sentenced for immigration offenses in 2007, 80% were Hispanic.

This heightened focus on immigration enforcement has also changed the citizenship profile of federal offenders. In 2007, Latinos without U.S. citizenship represented 29% of all federal offenders. Among all Latino offenders, some 72% were not U.S. citizens, up from 61% in 1991. By contrast, a much smaller share of white offenders (8%) and black offenders (6%) who were sentenced in federal courts in 2007 were not U.S. citizens.²

The total number of offenders sentenced in federal courts more than doubled from 1991 to 2007. During this period, the number of sentenced offenders who were Hispanic nearly quadrupled and accounted for more than half (54%) of the growth in the total number of sentenced offenders. One reason all of these figures have risen so sharply is that immigration offenses, unlike most other criminal offenses, are exclusively under the jurisdiction of federal rather than state or local courts.

In 1991, three times as many Hispanics were sentenced in federal courts for drug crimes (60%) as for immigration crimes (20%). By 2007, that pattern had reversed; among Hispanic offenders sentenced in federal courts, 48% were sentenced for an immigration offense and 37% for a drug offense.

Among sentenced immigration offenders, most were convicted of unlawfully entering or remaining in the U.S. Fully 75% of Latino offenders sentenced for immigration crimes in 2007 were convicted of entering the U.S. unlawfully or residing in the country without authorization, and 19% were sentenced for smuggling, transporting or harboring an unlawful alien. The convictions broke down largely along citizenship lines. Among sentenced non-citizen Latino immigration offenders, more than eight-in-ten (81%) were convicted of entering unlawfully or residing in the U.S. without authorization. In contrast, more than nine-in-ten (91%) U.S. citizen Latino immigration offenders were convicted of smuggling, transporting or harboring an unlawful alien.

Hispanics who were convicted of any federal offense were more likely than non-Hispanics to be sentenced to prison. But among all federal offenders sentenced to prison, Hispanics were also more likely than blacks or whites to receive a shorter prison term. These racial and ethnic disparities in sentencing appear to be linked to USSC guidelines that attach clear boundaries for the types of sentences that can be meted out for different types of crimes.

This report examines the ethnic, racial and citizenship status of sentenced offenders in federal courts. It is important to note that the federal courts represent a relatively small share of the overall criminal justice system in the United States. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 2004 only 6% of all offenders sentenced for a felony were sentenced in a federal court; the remainder were sentenced in a state court (Durose and Langan, 2007).

Inmates in State Prisons, Federal Prisons and Local Jails

Inmates held in federal prisons represent a small share of all inmates held in correctional facilities in the United States. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 2007 nearly 2.3 million inmates were held in state prisons, federal prisons or local jails. Only about 200,000, or 8.6%, were held in federal prisons and facilities.

Hispanics represented nearly one-in-three (31%) inmates incarcerated in federal prisons in 2007, a greater share than whites (28%) but a smaller share than blacks (37%) (Bureau of Justice Statistics Program). This stands in sharp contrast to the ethnic and racial makeup of state prisons and local jails, where more than nine-in-ten (91%) of the 2.3 million inmates in this country are held. Among inmates held in state prisons, 19% were Hispanic, 36% were white and 39% were black in 2005 (West and Sabol, 2008). Among inmates held in local jails, 16% were Hispanic, 43% were white and 39% were black in 2007 (Pastore and Maguire, 2009).

According to the Pew Center on the States (2008), incarceration rates vary greatly across racial and ethnic groups. In 2006, 1.5% of Hispanic adults were incarcerated, while 3.4% of blacks and less than 1% of whites were behind bars.

The data for this report are from the United States Sentencing Commission’s Monitoring of Federal Criminal Sentences data files for fiscal years 1991 through 2007. These files contain information on all federal court cases in which an offender was sentenced. Only those cases with documentation compiled by the USSC are included in the data files. Prior to fiscal 1991, the commission utilized an alternative data collection method (Reedt and Widico-Stroop, 2008); data from those years are not included in the analysis presented in this paper.

Key findings of this report include:

Demographics of Sentenced Federal Offenders

• Hispanics represented 40% of all sentenced federal offenders in 2007, the single largest racial and ethnic group among sentenced federal offenders. Whites constituted 27% of federal sentenced offenders and blacks 23%. The remainder (10%) are Asians, Native Americans and those whose race and ethnicity is indeterminate.
• More than seven-in-ten (72%) of Hispanics sentenced in federal courts in 2007 did not hold U.S. citizenship. They accounted for 29% of all federal offenders in 2007.
• Latino offenders who did not hold U.S. citizenship represented a greater share of all Latino offenders in 2007 than in 1991—72% versus 61%.
• Between 1991 and 2007, the number of Hispanics sentenced in federal courts nearly quadrupled (270%), rising faster than the number of offenders sentenced in federal courts over this period and accounting for 54% of the growth in the total number of offenders.
• In 2007, more than half (56%) of all Latino offenders were sentenced in just five of the nation’s 94 U.S. district courts. All five are located near the U.S.-Mexico border: the Southern (17%) and Western (15%) districts of Texas, the District of Arizona (11%), the Southern District of California (6%), and the District of New Mexico (6%).

Offense Convictions in Federal Courts

• Among all Hispanics sentenced in federal courts in 2007, 48% were sentenced for immigration offenses, 37% for drug offenses and 15% for other offenses.
• Of Hispanic offenders with U.S. citizenship, more than half (56%) were sentenced for drug offenses, 14% for immigration offenses and 30% for all other offenses.
• Of Latino offenders who did not hold U.S. citizenship, more than six-in-ten (61%) were sentenced for immigration offenses, 30% for drug offenses and 9% for all other offenses.
• Much of the increase in the number of Hispanics sentenced in federal courts has come from a rise in the number of offenders sentenced for immigration offenses between 1991 and 2007.
• Three-fourths of Hispanic immigration offenders were sentenced for entering the U.S. unlawfully or residing in the country without authorization. Nearly two-in-ten (19%) were sentenced for smuggling, transporting or harboring an unlawful alien.
• More than eight-in-ten (81%) non-citizen Hispanic immigration offenders in 2007 were sentenced for entering the U.S. unlawfully or residing in the country without authorization. In contrast, fully 91% of Latino immigration offenders who were U.S. citizens were sentenced for smuggling, transporting or harboring an unlawful alien.

Prison Sentences

• In 2007, Hispanics sentenced in federal courts were more likely than non-Hispanic offenders to receive a prison sentence—96% versus 82%.
• Hispanics sentenced in federal courts in 2007 received shorter prison sentences than blacks or whites—46 months versus 91 months for blacks and 62 months for whites.
• Hispanics who did not hold U.S. citizenship were more likely to receive a prison sentence in 2007 than those who were citizens—98% versus 90%.
• The average prison sentence for Hispanics fell from 58 months in 1991 to 46 months in 2007.
• Non-U.S. citizen Latinos received shorter prison sentences (40 months) in 2007 than Hispanics with U.S. citizenship (61 months).

About this Report

This report examines the characteristics of offenders sentenced in federal courts. It does not provide an examination of offenders in state or local courts, where the majority of all offenders are sentenced. The data for this report are from the USSC’s Monitoring of Federal Criminal Sentences data for fiscal years 1991 to 2007. These files are the main source of information about the characteristics of federal offenders and their sentences.

A Note on Terminology

The terms “Hispanic” and “Latino” are used interchangeably in this report. The terms “whites” and “blacks” are used to refer to the non-Hispanic components of their population.

The terms “undocumented” and “illegal” are used interchangeably in this report.

Non-U.S. citizens are individuals who are legal (resident) aliens, illegal aliens or individuals without U.S. citizenship whose alien status is unknown.

U.S. citizens are citizens by birth or naturalized citizens.

Half (50%) of all Latinos say that the situation of Latinos in this country is worse now than it was a year ago, according to a new nationwide survey of 2,015 Hispanic adults conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center.

This pessimism is especially prevalent among immigrants, who account for 54% of all Hispanic adults in the United States. Fully 63% of these Latino immigrants say that the situation of Latinos has worsened over the past year. In 2007, just 42% of all adult Hispanic immigrants—and just 33% of all Hispanic adults—said the same thing.

These increasingly downbeat assessments come at a time when the Hispanic community in this country—numbering approximately 46 million, or 15.4% of the total U.S. civilian non-institutional population—has been hit hard by rising unemployment (Kochhar 2008) and stepped-up immigration enforcement.

In the survey, nearly one-in-ten Hispanic adults—native-born U.S. citizens (8%) and immigrants (10%) alike—report that in the past year the police or other authorities have stopped them and asked them about their immigration status.

Some Latinos are experiencing other difficulties because of their ethnicity. One-in-seven (15%) say that they have had trouble in the past year finding or keeping a job because they are Latino. One-in-ten (10%) report the same about finding or keeping housing.

On the question of immigration enforcement, Latinos disapprove of all five enforcement measures asked about in this survey—and generally do so by lopsided margins.

More than four-in-five Hispanics (81%) say that immigration enforcement should be left mainly to the federal authorities rather than the local police; 76% disapprove of workplace raids; 73% disapprove of the criminal prosecution of undocumented immigrants who are working without authorization; and 70% disapprove of the criminal prosecution of employers who hire undocumented immigrants. A narrow majority (53%) disapproves of a requirement that employers check a federal database to verify the legal immigration status of all prospective hires.

Most Latinos (63%) say that there has been an increase in the past year in immigration enforcement actions targeted at undocumented immigrants. And, in response to an open-ended question, a plurality (30%) of those who say there has been such an increase cite anti-immigrant sentiment as the biggest cause. Smaller shares cite government or policy-related measures (21%), security-related concerns (11%) or motivations related to the economy (9%).

The survey finds that a majority of Latinos worry about deportation. Some 40% say they worry a lot and an additional 17% say they worry some that they themselves, a family member or a close friend may be deported. This is up slightly from 2007, when 53% of Latino adults said that they worried a lot or some about deportation (Pew Hispanic Center 2007).

Not surprisingly, worries about deportation and perceptions of discrimination in jobs or housing because of Hispanic ethnicity correlate with the view that Latinos’ situation has worsened in the past year. Two-thirds (68%) of Latinos who worry a lot that they or someone close to them may be deported say that Latinos’ situation in the country today is worse than it was a year ago, as do 63% of Latinos who have experienced job difficulties because of their ethnicity and 71% of Latinos who report housing difficulties because of their ethnicity.

Hispanics are an important voting group in the November 4th election, and their widespread pessimism about the situation of Latinos as well as their strong opposition to federal enforcement policies could well have consequences in the political arena.

About half (49%) of all Latinos say that the Democratic Party has more concern for Hispanics, while just 7% say the Republican Party has more concern. Since 2004, the share of Hispanics who say that the Democratic Party has more concern for Hispanics has increased by 14 percentage points. Most of this gain for the Democrats comes from a reduction in the share of Latinos who say there is no difference between the parties.

Among Hispanics who are registered voters, a majority say that Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is the better candidate for Hispanics (55%) and for immigrants (50%). Just 11% of Hispanic registered voters say that Republican presidential nominee John McCain is better for Hispanics, and just 12% say he is better for immigrants. The remainder see no difference between the two candidates on this front. Overall, Hispanic registered voters support Obama over McCain by 66% to 23% (Lopez and Minushkin 2008).

This report is based on a bilingual telephone survey of a nationally representative sample of 2,015 Hispanics ages 18 and older. Interviews were conducted from June 9 to July 13, 2008. The margin of error of the survey is plus or minus 2.8 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. For a full description of the survey methodology, see Appendix 1.

About this Report

The 2008 National Survey of Latinos focuses on Hispanic adults’ views of immigration enforcement and perceptions of discrimination. The report also explores how Latinos rate the political parties and their presidential candidates on immigration and Hispanic concerns. The survey was conducted from June 9 through July 13, 2008, among a randomly selected, nationally representative sample of 2,015 Hispanic adults, 892 of whom report that they are U.S. citizens and registered to vote. The survey was conducted in both English and Spanish. The margin of error for the full sample is plus or minus 2.8 percentage points; for registered voters, the margin of error is 4.4 percentage points.

A Note on Terminology

The terms “Latino” and “Hispanic” are used interchangeably in this report, as are the terms “foreign born” and “immigrant.”

Hispanics in the United States are feeling a range of negative effects from the increased public attention and stepped-up enforcement measures that have accompanied the growing national debate over illegal immigration.

Just over half of all Hispanic adults in the U.S. worry that they, a family member or a close friend could be deported, a new nationwide survey of Latinos by the Pew Hispanic Center has found. Nearly two-thirds say the failure of Congress to enact an immigration reform bill has made life more difficult for all Latinos. Smaller numbers (ranging from about one-in-eight to one-in-four) say the heightened attention to immigration issues has had a specific negative effect on them personally. These effects include more difficulty finding work or housing; less likelihood of using government services or traveling abroad; and more likelihood of being asked to produce documents to prove their immigration status.

However, when respondents were asked about changes in the overall situation of Latinos in this country in the past year, no consensus view emerged. About one-in-three say things have gotten worse, about one-in-four say things have gotten better, and about four-in-ten say there has been no change. Despite their concerns about the impact of the immigration debate, Hispanics are generally content with their own lives and upbeat about the long-term prospects for Latino children. Nearly eight-in-ten respondents, for example, say they are very (45%) or somewhat (33%) confident that Hispanic children growing up now will have better jobs and more money than they have.

Hispanics are the nation’s largest minority group, numbering 47 million (about 15.5% of the total U.S. population). About a quarter of Hispanic adults are unauthorized immigrants, most of them arriving as part of a heavy wave of immigration that began gathering force in the 1970s.¹ Twice in the past two years, the U.S. Congress tried but failed to pass comprehensive legislation to deal with the problem of illegal immigration. However, federal, state and local governments have pressed forward with hundreds of new enforcement bills, regulations and procedures—including stepped-up deportations, more workplace raids, and restrictions on access to driver’s licenses and other government services and benefits. (A summary of key trends in enforcement begins on page 6).

The survey finds that Hispanics oppose these enforcement measures, often by lopsided margins. Three quarters (75%) disapprove of workplace raids; some 79% prefer that local police not take an active role in identifying illegal immigrants; and some 55% disapprove of states checking for immigration status before issuing driver’s licenses. By contrast, non-Hispanics are much more supportive of all these policies, with a slight majority favoring workplace raids and a heavy majority favoring driver’s license checks.²

In addition to this wide variance in views between Hispanics and non-Hispanics, the survey finds less pronounced—but still significant—gaps within the Hispanic community on a range of matters, from perceptions about discrimination to attitudes about illegal immigration to support for tougher enforcement measures. For example, on questions about enforcement policies, native-born Hispanics take positions that are closer to those of the rest of the U.S. population than do foreign-born Hispanics. Also, the native born are less likely than the foreign born to report a negative personal impact from the heightened attention to immigration issues.

Likewise, Hispanics who are not citizens feel much more vulnerable in the current environment than do Hispanics who are citizens. They are about twice as likely as Hispanic citizens to worry about deportation and to feel a specific negative personal impact from the heightened attention to illegal immigration. (Non-citizens account for 44% of the total adult Hispanic population. Of these non-citizen Latino adults, an estimated 55% are undocumented immigrants and the other 45% are legal aliens).

Hispanics also have widely varying assessments about the amount of attention that local officials and political leaders in their communities are paying to the issue of illegal immigration. A third say a lot, but four-in-ten say not too much, and one-in-five say none at all. These variances likely reflect the reality that immigration has become a politically heated local issue in some parts of the country but not in others.

Whatever new vulnerability Hispanics feel in the present political and policy environment, the survey finds little evidence of a backlash against illegal immigration by Hispanics themselves. To the contrary, Hispanics generally see illegal immigrants as a plus – both for the Latino community itself and for the U.S. economy in general. Here, too, there are differences by nativity – with the foreign born significantly more positive than the native born in their views about the effects of illegal immigration. But even the native born are more positive than negative. And, as they assess the impact of illegal immigrants on the economy, native-born Latinos are more inclined to see a positive impact now (64%) than they were five years ago, when just 54% said the impact was positive.

The Pew Hispanic Center survey was conducted by telephone from October 3 through November 9, 2007 among a randomly-selected, nationally-representative sample of 2,003 Hispanic adults ages 18 and over (with a margin of error of plus/minus 2.7 percentage points). A summary of its key findings:

Worries About Deportation

• More than half of all Hispanic adults say they worry a lot (33%) or some (20%) that they, a family member or a close friend could be deported. This anxiety is particularly widespread among foreign-born Hispanics, who make up just over half of all Hispanic adults. Fully two-thirds of this group say they worry a lot (43%) or some (24%) about deportation. But even among native-born Latinos—all of whom are citizens—there is significant anxiety. Nearly a third of this group says they worry a lot (18%) or some (14%) that they, a family member or close friend could be deported. Among this group, the worries are presumably centered on family and friends.

Views About Illegal Immigrants

• Hispanics have a generally positive view of illegal immigrants. Half (50%) say that the growing number of undocumented or illegal immigrants has had a positive impact on Hispanics living here. Just one-in-five say illegal immigrants have had a negative impact, and the rest either say there has been no impact or they don’t have an opinion.
• Three-quarters of Hispanics say illegal immigrants help the U.S. economy by providing low-cost labor, while just 17% say they hurt the economy by driving wages down. Non-Hispanics, by contrast, tend to see the negative: some 48% say illegal immigrants hurt the economy, while just 40% say they help it.

Views About Enforcement Policies

• There’s a wide gap between Hispanics and non-Hispanics on attitudes toward three enforcement measures tested in this survey. Some 51% of non-Hispanics approve of workplace raids to discourage employers from hiring illegal immigrants; just 20% of Hispanics agree. Some 85% of non-Hispanics approve of states checking immigration status before issuing driver’s licenses; just 40% of Hispanics agree. Some 45% of non-Hispanics approve of local police taking an active role in identifying illegal immigrants; just 14% of Hispanics agree.

Impact of Immigration Debate

• Two-thirds of Hispanics (64%) say the debate over immigration policy and the failure of Congress to enact an immigration reform bill have made life more difficult for Latinos living in this country. Foreign-born Hispanics are more inclined to feel this way (72%) than are the native born (53%).
• Roughly half of all Hispanics report that the increased public attention to immigration issues has negatively impacted their lives in one or more specific ways. Some 12% say they have had more trouble getting or keeping a job; 15% say they have had more trouble finding or keeping housing; 19% say they have been asked to produce documents to prove their immigration status more often than in the past; 22% say they are less likely to use government services; and 24% say they are less likely to travel abroad.

Perceptions of Discrimination

• When asked to look back over a longer time period, some four-in-ten Hispanic (41%) respondents say they, a family member or a close friend had experienced discrimination in the past five years. When the same question was posed in a 2002 survey, just 31% responded that they or someone close to them had had a personal experience with discrimination; in 2006, 38% said this.
• More than half of Latinos (54%) say discrimination is a major problem that is keeping Latinos from succeeding in this country, and a quarter (24%) say it is a minor problem. This perception has grown since 2002, when 44% called discrimination a major problem, but declined slightly since 2006, when 58% said the same thing.
• Asked to choose among four possible causes of discrimination against Hispanics, nearly half (46%) of all respondents say language is the biggest cause; 22% say immigration status; 16% say income and education; and 11% say skin color.

Quality of Life

• About seven-in-ten Hispanics describe their quality of life as excellent (26%) or good (45%). Also, 78% of respondents say they are very or somewhat confident that Latino children growing up now in the U.S. will have better jobs and make more money than they themselves have.

A Note on Terminology

The terms “Latino” and “Hispanic” are used interchangeably in this report, as are the terms “foreign born” and “immigrant.”

The terms “unauthorized immigrants”, “undocumented immigrants” and “illegal immigrants” are also used interchangeably.

Native-born persons include those born in Puerto Rico.

Citizens include citizens by birth and naturalization.

Percents may not total 100 due to rounding or the omission of don’t know/refused responses.

About This Report

The 2007 National Survey of Latinos focuses on Hispanics’ views on the immigration debate and immigration enforcement, attitudes towards illegal immigrants, and perceptions of discrimination. The survey was conducted by telephone from October 3 through November 9, 2007 among a randomly-selected, nationally-representative sample of 2,003 Hispanic adults (with a margin of error of plus/minus 2.7%). Contributors to the report include April Clark, D’Vera Cohn, Richard Fry, Cary Funk, Felisa Gonzales, Rakesh Kochhar, Gretchen Livingston, Jeffrey Passel and Paul Taylor.