This book provides the first comprehensive economic assessment of the rapidly growing Hispanic American work force. In a wide-ranging analysis of a variety of large computerized data banks, the author presents a host of original findings on postwar trends in Hispanic wages, poverty unemployment rates, and educational attainment. The implications of these findings for current debates on income inequality, discrimination, school dropouts, and the domestic effects of immigration are thoroughly evaluated. Many of the conclusions throw into question widely held views on these issues among the public, academics, and policymakers.