Immigrants blend in at same rate as earlier newcomers

                      By ANDRES VIGLUCCI

                      Immigrants in Miami-Dade County and the rest of Florida are successfully integrating into the American
                      mainstream and do not resist assimilating, a comprehensive study by population experts at the
                      University of Miami and the University of Florida has found.

                      After analyzing reams of Census surveys and other data, they concluded that foreign-born Florida
                      residents are generally learning English at the same pace as immigrants early in the 20th century, are
                      paying their fair share of state and local taxes, are becoming citizens and intermarrying with U.S.
                      natives and are catching up to average American income levels within 15 years of arriving.

                      While recent arrivals have lower levels of education and income, use more public assistance and pay
                      less in taxes, those who have been in Florida longer become socio-economically indistinguishable from
                      the average American -- and in some measures do even better, the study concludes.

                      To its authors, who set out to test the notion today's newcomers lag behind their historical
                      predecessors in quality and accomplishment, the findings suggest this most recent group of immigrants
                      is every bit as talented and hardworking.

                      ''The bottom line is, this reflects well on these immigrants,'' said Thomas Boswell, the study's principal
                      author and chairman of UM's geography department.

                      Boswell and his co-authors concur that many Hispanic immigrants, especially those in Miami-Dade,
                      continue to speak Spanish at home and in public -- a big reason for the perception that they have failed
                      to assimilate. But the study explains the persistence in the use of Spanish by noting that Miami-Dade's
                      influx, dating back to 1960, is relatively recent compared to influxes of Hispanics to California and New
                      York, which began decades earlier.

                      While those who arrived as adults from Cuba and other Spanish-speaking countries of Latin America
                      continue to use their native language, their children and grandchildren are readily picking up English
                      and even disdaining their parents' tongue, Census surveys show.

                      That's no different from previous waves of immigration, when acquiring full fluency in English took three
                      generations, the study says.

                      RELEASED TODAY

                      The book-length study, published by UF's Bureau of Economic and Business Research, was designed to
                      answer key questions raised in Florida's long-simmering debate over immigration, including how
                      immigrants compare to the U.S.-born in terms of income, education and other measures.

                      It will be released today at a function of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, where the idea for
                      the analysis was hatched in 1998.

                      Boswell described the study as the most comprehensive attempt to evaluate the state of immigration in
                      Florida.

                      The analysis doesn't attempt to establish any additional costs for government services such as police
                      and fire protection or other public services to immigrants, concluding that those are impossible to
                      quantify reliably.

                      BIG SAVINGS

                      But it does note a considerable savings not generally recognized: Most immigrants arrive as adults,
                      having had their education paid for in their homelands. The authors estimate savings of at least
                      $69,000 per immigrant.

                      ''It's an enormous windfall,'' Boswell said.

                      The study does take on some well-publicized research that concluded that the educational, income and
                      skill levels of recent immigrants, while higher than ever, have been declining when compared to the
                      native-born population.

                      Some experts contend immigrants will find that growing education gap hard to overcome.

                      And while the income of long-time immigrants has indeed risen, there is no reason to think that will
                      necessarily continue to happen with the relatively less-educated newcomers, said Steven Camarota, a
                      demographer at the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington group that favors some limits on
                      immigration.

                      EDUCATION KEY

                      ''There is no better indicator of how you will do in America than education,'' said Camarota, whose own
                      research suggests immigrants are already falling behind in some measures.

                      For instance, he said, 39 percent of immigrants and their children lack health insurance in Florida,
                      compared to 15 percent of natives.

                      On the other hand, he said, the proportion of immigrants who have become citizens in Florida, about 45
                      percent, is far higher than in any other high-immigration state, a positive sign of integration.

                      NOT `ALL BAD'

                      ''I'm not saying it's all bad,'' Camarota said.

                      ``But we just don't know how the '80s and '90s immigrants are going to do long-term. And you will
                      probably add one million immigrants in Florida during the next decade. Florida should at least have a
                      significant debate about this.''

                      The UM/UF study concluded that the gap in attainments is evident only if you lump all immigrants
                      together. It found a marked difference in socio-economic status between immigrants who arrived
                      before 1980 and those who arrived afterward, but concluded that gap is merely a function of time
                      spent in the United States.

                      By accounting for the different times of arrival, the analysis found there is only a ''minuscule'' difference
                      in socio-economic status among arrivals in the 70s and those in the '90s.

                      BETTER STATUS

                      Moreover, the study found that the adult, U.S.-born children of immigrants have significantly better
                      status than their parents, with higher occupational and income levels.

                      And the longer they've been here, the better immigrants tend to do, the study found.

                      Income measures for long-term immigrants, for instance, are virtually equal to those of U.S. natives in
                      Miami-Dade and the rest of the country -- and exceed those of natives in the state as a whole. In fact,
                      naturalized citizens have the highest average incomes of all.

                      The analysis also found differences among sub-groups.

                      In Florida and Miami-Dade, immigrants from Europe, Asia and South America have the highest
                      socio-economic status, and those from Central America the lowest, with Cubans in the middle.

                      One reason: Those from far away tend to come from the higher echelons of society because they can
                      afford the high cost of traveling to the United States, as compared to Mexican and other close-by
                      immigrants who can walk across a border.

                      The study also concluded:

                      • Immigrants pay their share of state taxes. The foreign-born comprise 16 percent of Florida's
                      population and pay 15 of all taxes, a difference the study termed nearly insignificant.

                      • Immigrants use Medicaid, the government health insurance for the poor, in proportion to their
                      population, and are relatively light users of welfare.

                      • They are relatively heavy users of other public assistance, such as food stamps and Supplemental
                      Security Income, which provides cash to the aged, blind and disabled. That is largely because of the
                      state's numerous Cuban refugees, many of whom require food assistance after arriving and lack
                      sufficient work history to receive Social Security.