New Americans in Postsecondary Education

In 2007–08, about 23 percent of all undergraduates were first-generation immigrants (10 percent) or second-generation Americans (with an immigrant parent) (13 percent).

New Americans in Postsecondary Education: A Profile of Immigrant and Second-Generation American Undergraduates, a Statistics in Brief, presents the demographic and enrollment characteristics of undergraduates who are immigrants or the children of immigrants and compares them with undergraduates whose parents were born in the United States.

The results are based on nationally representative data collected through the 2007–08 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:08). Findings include:

• Asian and Hispanic students constituted the majority of immigrant and second-generation American undergraduates. Asians made up the plurality (30 percent) of immigrant undergraduates, while Hispanics made up the plurality (41 percent) of second-generation American undergraduates.

• Immigrant Asian and Hispanic students enrolled in community colleges at higher rates (54 and 51 percent, respectively) than did all undergraduates (44 percent). Among immigrant and second-generation American undergraduates, larger percentages of Hispanic students (12 percent of each group) enrolled in for-profit institutions than did their Asian counterparts (7 percent among immigrants and 5 percent among second-generation Americans).