The educational enrollment of immigrant youth: A test of the segmented-assimilation hypothesis

An analysis of 1990 census data on the educational enrollment of 15- to 17- year-old immigrants to the United States provides partial support for predi ctions from both the segmented-assimilation hypothesis and the immigrant op timism hypothesis. Most immigrant adolescents, especially from Asia, are as likely as their native-born peers to be enrolled in high school, or more s o. The "at-risk" immigrant youths with above-average levels of nonenrollmen t that are not reduced with longer exposure to American society are primari ly of Hispanic Caribbean origins (from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba). Recent Mexican immigrants who arrived as teenagers have nonenro llment rates over 40%, but Mexican youths who arrived at younger ages are o nly somewhat less likely to be enrolled in school than are native-born Amer icans.