exactly my point - if you were to subset to people whose parents were native-born US and compare their wealth to that of their parents at same age, it would be absolutely higher. it looks closer than it is because of immigration and we aren’t comparing to the parents in their home country
What I find interesting is that children in of immigrants greatly outperform children of non-immigrants when compared by household income. That is to say, the have higher economic mobility intergenerational income growth.
nothing about that is surprising and is exactly what you would expect when people move to places with more efficient talent markets, especially from pseudo-feudal societies that still existed in lots of the developing world in the 20th century, and that's before you get into the selection effect.
my dad was basically expected to work the farms his entire life and school ended at the 3rd grade where he grew up, he moved to the US and became a chess master & went to one of the best colleges in the country. impossible where he was from and really shows how stupid and zero-sum-minded old world elites are compared to the US/anglo culture.
Expectations depend on your priors. You and I might agree on those.
> immigrants greatly outperform children of non-immigrants when compared by household income
Income, not wealth. Particularly not after inheritances transfer.
The studies I am familiar with focus on the lowest income quintiles, where inheritance wealth transfer is less of a consideration. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if wealth transfer favored immigrants as well when families are controlled and matched for comparison.