Provides in-depth analysis of the growing second generation of immigrants in the United States, with particular emphasis on challenges to successful adaptation of children of immigrant parents. Social scientists as well as practitioners working with immigrant children and their families get information about: (1) the changing face, and shifting implications, of bilingualism; (2) the role of immigrant networks in bolstering positive self-images in the face of pressure to assimilate; (3) patterns of immigrant adaptation, including the impact of duration of residence or age of arrival on the socioeconomic outcomes of immigrants; (4) social, economic, and demographic characteristics of contemporary second-generation immigrants, including details of household composition and labor-force participation; (5) examples of extended family living arrangements; (6) issues of ethnic identity, self-esteem, and segmented assimilation among children of immigrants; (7) particular ethnic and identity issues for second-generation black immigrants, as illustrated by youth in New York City; and (8) refugee culture as a source of social capital to offset difficulties in adaptation, as illustrated by Vietnamese youth in New Orleans, Louisiana. Serious obstacles now imperil successful social and economic adaptation of the nation’s second-generation immigrants, offering a stimulus for continued research on and analysis of the topic.
