Afterword: Understanding and Serving the Children of Immigrants

To date, demographers, economists, and sociologists who focus almost exclusively on adults have dominated the agenda of immigration scholarship. Immigrant youth, however, are now the fastest growing sector of the child population (Landale & Oropesa, 1995). Today, one in five children in the United States is the child of immigrants, and it is projected that by 2040 one in three children will fit this description (Rong & Prissle, 1998). Given the numbers involved, how these children adapt and the educational pathways they take will clearly have profound implications for our society. Thus, there is an urgent need to expand our knowledge in this field.