Do we need them for the future?
The children of today’s immigrants represent a large portion of the workforce and company entrepreneurs of the future. Our workforce grew by more than 40% in the late 1990s, and since immigration is expected to continue for the foreseeable future it is critical to our future success.
Many Hispanic/Latino immigrants today are uneducated and unskilled, which raises the possibility that their children will not be able to adapt to our knowledge-based and high-tech economy. When parents aren’t well-educated, they tend to have lower expectations for their children and don’t encourage them to continue their education beyond high school. In many cases, these parents are reliant on their children working in the businesses they control or earning money for the family in other ways. Many of their children are forced to drop out of high school in order to help their family make ends meet. “
Immigrant children make up a quarter of all U.S. children under the age of six, and the majority of these youngsters come from low-income homes. As a result, if these children were able to attend preschool, their lives would be vastly improved, especially if there were also resources for their parents. Early child-rearing advice and an understanding of the importance of education would be a huge benefit to these parents’ children’s public school careers if they could attend local ESL classes.
Preschool education increases academic achievement and decreases the likelihood of dropping out or getting into trouble in school. Children from low-income families, including those who are new to the country, are particularly vulnerable to this.
Ideally, all parents could benefit from this kind of training, but the poorest among them, particularly those who do not speak English at home or who lack formal schooling, are in particular need.
Working-class jobs in the United States are on the decline across the country. Many people who were born here and have worked in these facilities for decades are shocked that factories and textile mills are closing and moving to other countries. Due to their age or educational limitations, many of these people are unable to learn the computers effectively enough for these high-tech occupations.
Immigrants’ children who have dropped out of school and have no training in these \shigh-tech occupations will have the same difficulty. It is likely that immigrants with insufficient abilities will continue to labour in low-paying occupations for the rest of their lives and never be able to escape poverty. The cycle of poverty will be perpetuated if they are unable to provide for their own children.
Although the income gap between them and persons born in the United States may still be rather large, once they are fluent in English and understand U.S. rules, they have a far higher chance of landing a better job.
The educational goals of undocumented Hispanic students in our public schools may be so low that they may not even attempt to complete high school, even if their parents do not require their money. When it comes to getting a college degree or working in the United States, they are often discouraged because of their lack of belief in their ability to accomplish so.