Second-Generation Identities

The second generation can be defined as the U.S.-born children of immigrants and foreign-born [Page 1922]children who arrived at early enough ages to be largely educated and socialized in the United States. Earlier cohorts of children of predominantly European immigrants, who settled in the United States during the mid-19th to early 20th centuries, were legally accepted as White. Although it took some time, they were eventually socially and culturally accepted as well. In contrast, the “new second generation” individuals of the post-1960s era are the children of immigrants mostly from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia and are largely considered by other Americans and themselves to be non-White. This entry examines the incorporation of the recent second generation, compared with earlier cohorts, as it has ...