There are some big things missing from this article and study
More Mexican immigrants in the U.S. are highly skilled, study finds
The number of college-educated Mexican immigrants in the United States has risen more than 150 percent since 2000, according to a study released Thursday.
Mexican immigrants with a bachelor’s degree rose from 269,000 in 2000 to 678,000 in 2017, an increase of 409,000, according to the report by the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington think tank, and Southern Methodist University’s Mission Foods Texas-Mexico Center.
That makes Mexicans the fourth largest group of college-educated immigrants in the country, after people from India, China and the Philippines, according to the study, which looked at highly skilled Mexicans in Texas and the rest of the nation.
“Much of the immigration debate in this country is framed around illegal immigration from Mexico,” said Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute and a co-author of the study. “But in fact there is a dramatic change in the profile of Mexican immigrants coming to the United States.”
He said that change has come as Mexico’s population has become better educated and as more Mexicans have come to the U.S. through legal channels and on temporary visas.
The findings contradict language President Donald Trump has used to describe Mexican immigrants, particularly when he said, in announcing his presidential bid in 2015, that they were bringing drugs and crime to the U.S. and that some were “rapists.”
Trump was speaking about those showing up illegally, and Trump is exactly right. But, let me ask: just because someone has a college degree does that make them highly skilled? If your degree is in sociology, women’s studies, art history, are you skilled? No.
The researchers said that naturalized citizens made up the largest share of Mexican college graduates, but unauthorized immigrants and legal permanent residents also are well represented. Temporary visa holders were a smaller share, but more likely to have a college degree.
For the most part, this supports what illegal immigration hardliners have been saying: stop the illegals, and let in some of those applying legally who bring value. Further, how many of those “unauthorized immigrants” are getting an education while here in the U.S. on the backs of the U.S. taxpayer, taking seats away from citizens?
If these immigrants are so highly educated, why are they unable to build a successful career for themselves in their home countries?
The illegal immigrants are desperate. Why else would they pack up and leave their homes and families for such an uncertain future trying to sneak into the United States? The legal immigrants do have some skills, and we can, and should, welcome immigrants who have the skills to contribute positively toward our economy and support themselves. But the illegal immigrants can’t do that, and should be rounded up and shipped back home; whatever property they have accumulated in the US should be confiscated to pay for sending them back.
d typed: If these immigrants are so highly educated, why are they unable to build a successful career for themselves in their home countries?
Good point. Why do young Americans leave their rural areas for college and then move to big cities to build a successful career? It’s possible that people migrate from areas with few opportunities to areas with more opportunities.
I would bet that virtually all the illegals with degrees are Dreamers.