Children of immigrants reshaping America

The future of America is being forged at Dumbarton Middle School.

With students from 37 countries, Dumbarton, a magnet school in Towson, Md., near Baltimore, reflects how the United States is rapidly being transformed into a polyglot, multicultural society — not by immigrants, but by their children.

Figures from the U.S. Census Bureau paint a clear picture: By as early as 2023, more than half of all children will be members of what are now minority groups, an evolution fueled significantly by a baby boom among recent immigrants. By 2050, they will make up more than 60 percent of all American children.

By 2050, the number of Americans of Hispanic origin will double to comprise a third of the American population. The Asian population is projected to nearly triple, to 9.2 percent of the population. And as those populations mingle, the number of people who identify themselves as being of two or more races will more than triple.

The result will be a United States in which the so-called white majority will, for the first time, be in the minority.

In the process, the children of new immigrants “will not only reshape American racial and ethnic relations but define the character of American social, cultural, and political life,” researchers at Harvard University and City University of New York write in “Inheriting the City,” a landmark study of the children of first-generation immigrants to the United States.

Crossing, assimilating differences
Research suggests that the children of immigrants face special challenges and opportunities that prepare them to succeed in American society. In the homes of immigrant parents, it is the children who cross cultural and linguistic barriers, breaking them down while absorbing the best of both worlds.

In a study of children of recent immigrants in Southern California and South Florida, Ruben Rumbaut, a sociology professor at the University of California-Irvine, and Alejandros Portes, d irector of the Center for Migration and Development at Princeton University, found that the so-called second generation was better equipped than ever to overcome historical hurdles like racism, economic disadvantage and language assimilation.

An msnbc.com-NBC News special report Alex Johnson is a reporter for msnbc.com. Maria Menounos is a correspondent for NBC News. NBC affiliates KNBC of Los Angeles and KNSD of San Diego contributed to this report.

At only 17, Oz Contreras of Siler City, N.C., has been learned to navigate the adult world at the same time he goes to class and plays soccer at Jordan-Matthews High School.

“My dad has actually never talked to any person for bills,” said Oz, whose Mexican immigrant parents do not speak English. “It’s always been me.”

As a result, Oz has had to grow up more quickly than many of his peers. “We’re more, like, independent, and my parents are there to motivate us but can’t actually help us,” he said.

Paul Cuadros, Oz’s coach, said many of his players are caught in the middle — trying to respect their parents’ roots while growing up American in Siler City, where the immigrant population has grown by 80 percent in just 10 years.

“To be able to live in both worlds and function in them and have an identity in both of them is really important,” Cuadros said.

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