Central to that transformation are the modes of incorporation of today's immigrants - and more consequentially still, of their offspring. Between 1990 and 1997, the immigrant population increased from 20 to 27 million, with the number of their children growing commensurately. The sheer magnitude of this demographic transformation is impressive. Immigrant families are heavily concentrated in areas of settlement. For the record, the 1965 changes in United States' immigration law did not usher in these new flows, as is often claimed.
Immigration is mostly the province of the young.
About a third, however, are over 55 - born before World War II to European parents who immigrated earlier this century. The increasing size and concentration of this emerging population, added to its diverse origins, makes its evolution extraordinarily important. While the rapid growth of U.S. immigration over the last three decades has led to mushrooming body of research and intensified public debate over their impact on American society, little noticed has been paid to the fact that a new generation of Americans raised in immigrant families has been coming of age. Hence, the long-term effects of contemporary immigration will hinge more on the trajectories of these youths than the fate of their parents. They represent the most consequential and lasting legacy of the U.S.'s new mass immigration.