Economic and Professional Performance Mexican American and Chinese American

Economic and Professional Performance

This is a paper that explores the economic and professional performance of Mexican-American and Chinese-Americans.

There are six references used for this paper.

The United States is a country rich in diversity. It is interesting to look at Chinese-Americans and Mexican-Americans and determined their professional performance, as well as their economic performance.

Mexican-Americans

Mexican-Americans are one of several groups which make up the Hispanic population in the United States, and are found mostly "in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Texas. Although there may be cultural differences, most Hispanics share North American values, including a desire for upward mobility (Coates)."

Performance

Many Mexican-Americans find their efforts to improve their economic condition challenged by their language skills and education levels. The majority of Mexican-Americans speak Spanish and understand little or no English. Education "is a serious problem, partly because many Mexican-American families are migrant workers who move from place to place, forcing the children to attend school irregularly (unknown).

They have the lowest rate of high school graduates, as evidenced by the fact that in 1970, there were few Mexican-American adults with high school diplomas.

While these numbers have improved, "by 1991 nearly one in two completed high school; they are still worse than any other group (unknown)."

Barriers in education and language result in a large number of Mexican-Americans being forced to work at low-paying jobs. These low incomes result in children providing additional support for the family, meaning "the poor education of one generation leads to the poor education of the next (unknown)."

Changes

The civil rights movement encouraged many Mexican-Americans to become politically active, and since the 1970's they have "been elected or appointed to many high-ranking political positions (unknown)."

Today Mexican-Americans are encouraged to vote as a means to improve their economic conditions through political involvement.

Internal Factors

Mexican-Americans have shown to have lower academic scores than a number of other ethnicities such as Asian-Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans.

These scores are significant since education has a direct effect on earning potential and economic performance. Studies have shown that when one or both parents have a graduate degree there is an increase in test scores.

In 1993, the combined SAT math and verbal scores for Mexican-Americans "with at least one parent with a graduate degree were 912, compared to 1072 for Asian-Americans, 917 for other Hispanics, and 934 for Native Americans (Edgerton)."

Studies show that bilingualism is positively connected to "cognitive abilities and scholastic achievement. The retention of Spanish proficiency does not hinder the socioeconomic achievement of Hispanic-American men, nor does bilingual education retard lifelong achievement (Coates)."

There is a positive link between high school students who are proficient in both English and their parental native language and greater academic success. An "ethnographic study of Mexican-American children found that advanced bilingual skills were related to a strong Mexican identity and that fully bilingual young Mexican-Americans tended to perform better in school than those who lacked proficient bilingual skills (Coates)."

Students who are proficient in their native language are able to achieve a better relationship and receive encouragement from their ethnic group.

External Factors

The immigration of workers "may have an adverse affect on the wages of persons of the same ethnicity and with similar human capital characteristics (Papademetriou, 1-7)." The Hispanic wage growth can be negatively effected when immigrants enter the labor market, as evidenced by the finding that "the wages of low-skilled Mexican-Americans are lower in labor markets with high concentrations of Mexican immigrants (Papademetriou, 1-7)."

Chinese-Americans

In 2000, there were approximately 2.3 million Chinese-Americans, and today most are achieving a number of successes. Chinese-Americans are seen "as hard-working professionals or small business people, with stable families. The most recent census data indicates that they have median household incomes and educational levels higher than their White counterparts (immigrants.harpweek.com/ChineseAmericans/1Introduction/BillWeiInt...)."

Performance

Chinese-Americans have played an essential part of American history. "From building railroads to the earliest rockets, from agriculture to pioneering AIDS research, Chinese-Americans have been at the core of the American infrastructure (Hong)." Chinese-Americans have always been politically active by changing laws that robbed them of their basic civil rights and banned them from owning property.

Internal Factors

Chinese-Americans are "affluent, well educated, high achievers who outperform North American whites in the classroom and the workplace. Chinese males have a 90% high-school-completion rate, as opposed to the white rate of 87%, and those graduating at the top of their class are well acculturated, with high expectations of the workplace and their position in it (Coates)."

As in Mexican-American students, there was a positive link between Chinese-American students were bilingual and academic success. The "bilingual students had higher student retention rates, more graduates, and higher self-esteem. These positive outcomes are associated with the acceptance of distinctive ethnicity (Coates)."