Report Describes Immigrants as Younger and More Diverse

WASHINGTON, June 9 - New Census Bureau figures released on Thursday show that the immigrant population in the United States is becoming younger, a shift likely to foster more tolerance for diversity and perhaps accelerate assimilation, demographers and immigration experts say.

The figures show that immigration trends are forming a unique generational divide: those immigrants over 40 are largely white, while those under 40 are increasingly Hispanic, Asian and from other minority groups.

"The older, white-dominated society is thinning out into the past," William H. Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, said. "It is being replaced by the broad diversity of a younger generation."

Mr. Frey added: "We will become a more tolerant society as these young people move toward adulthood and a blurring occurs of the sharp racial distinctions of the previous decades."

This article encourages me to continue to advocate for a mestizo youth movement that is radical in its love and commitment to Jesus, and fully committed to a new revolution of justice for all, especially for the marginalized in our society.

One place to direct the efforts of this new movement is to focus on reforming the immigration policies of our nation, that seek to backtrack on the hope and promise that this country was founded on, that of being a land of opportunity for all, which is exactly what Latino, Asian, Polish, and other immigrants continue to desire for themselves and their families.

I continue to see the DREAM Act as a practical way for us to advocate for the most vulnerable and the most promosing of immigrants, our children and youth, that desrve the chance to gain residency and then citixenship in the USA. I was at a meeting last night where HS kids, both Citizens and undocumented, advocated for the introduction of the DREAM act.

Truly, for these young people a blurring of rigid racial distinctions is being replaced by a new solidarity as they stand up together and declare that 'a policy of paranoia must be replaced by a new policy of promise' in the area of immigration.

As a mestizo follower of Christ, this fuels my passion to see the church fully engaged in this human rights and human dignity struggle. My prayer is that years from now, we won't be seen as the only ones who stood on the sidelines and did nothing because of a lack of information, or worse yet, because of a lack of commitment to justice on behalf of our immigrant neighbors.