Reaping What You Sow: Immigration, Youth, and Reactive Ethnicity

Every day we are reminded of-indeed, we are surrounded by-the myriad ways in which the United States remains a "permanently unfinished" society, a global sponge remarkable in its continuing capacity to absorb millions of people of all classes and cultures from every continent on earth.There are today nearly 40 million foreign-born persons in the U.S.-of whom 12 million are estimated to be undocumented, most from Mexico and Central America-and another 30 million of foreign-parentage.This immigrant-stock population, the largest ever, is a youthful one-and today's U.S.-born second generation, with a median age of 12, is poised to explode into adulthood in the coming 10 to 20 years.They are "coming of age" in an aging society undergoing profound social and economic transformations, all of which will have, inevitably, political ramifications.A great deal of how tomorrow's social contract between natives and newcomers is worked out, and how the commitment to democratic values of equity and inclusion is met, will hinge on the mode of political incorporation and civic engagement of newcomer youth today (Tienda 2002; Tienda and Mitchell, 2006).The essays in this issue provide a glimpse of the possibilities.