MASS MIGRATION AND LOCAL OUTCOMES - IS INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION TO THEUNITED-STATES CREATING A NEW URBAN UNDERCLASS

For earlier migrant streams, labour migration was a means of economic advancement. Moreover, migrants by and large were welcomed by the host societies, even recruited in the widely used guest worker programmes in Europe. Now, in the late 20th century, with changing economic condi tions and very large-scale migrant hows, the context is changing; immi grants are less welcome and appear less well equipped to deal with the changing economies of postindustrial societies. An analysis of hows t o a sample of large metropolitan areas in the US shows that the new im migrants are substantially poorer in educational levels than both earl ier immigrants and the native-born population, with consequently lower incomes and greater likelihoods of being in poverty. If the new immig rant groups do not constitute a new underclass, it certainly raises th e possibility that a larger number of new immigrants are likely to hav e a more difficult time making the transition to self-sufficiency than was true of earlier groups.