Author Amy Chua would like the world to believe that Chinese Americans along with seven other groups are more successful because they possess certain cultural traits(Photo by Mexicanos Sin Fronteras).
Research by University of California, Irvine Sociologist Jennifer Lee contradicts that conclusion.
Lee wrote about her study in a recent article for Time.
She and UCLA sociologist Min Zhou looked at Mexican immigrants in Los Angeles and concluded Mexicans are the City of Angels most successful immigrant group. The gist of her argument is that Mexican immigrants were more likely to arrive with less education than Chinese immigrants.
6o percent of Chinese immigrant fathers in Lee and Zhou’s study came with bachelor degrees as did 40 percent of the mothers. By contrast, just 7 percent of the Mexican fathers and five percent of the mothers graduated from college.
Their children, on the other hand, graduated at twice the rate of their fathers and triple the rate of their mothers.
Lee asks a good question. Should Americans change their definition of success. What do you think?
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