NEW IMMIGRANTS BLENDING IN; LATINOS, ASIANS BUYING HOMES, LEARNING ENGLISH.

Byline: Douglas Haberman Staff Writer

Recent immigrants, predominantly Latinos and Asians, become U.S. citizens, learn English, buy homes and intermarry much as previous generations of immigrants did, according to a study released Tuesday.

Based on 1990 U.S. Census data and more recent population surveys, the survey challenges notions that Latino and Asian immigrants are somehow different and aren't assimilating.

``All of them are showing steady signs of integrating into American society,'' said the report's author Gregory Rodriguez, a research scholar at the Pepperdine Institute for Public Policy and a fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C.

The study also shows that, even as they assimilate, recent immigrants and their children retain an identification with their original culture and, like immigrants before them, put their own cultural stamp on the region they inhabit.

That finding contrasts with the point of view of some who claim assimilation comes at too high a cost - the loss of immigrants' original cultural identity, Rodriguez said.

The report, entitled ``From Newcomers to New Americans: The Successful Integration of Immigrants into American Society,'' was published by the National Immigration Forum, a public policy group that advocates generous immigration policies and fair treatment of immigrants.

``(The study) pierces widely held misperceptions,'' said Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum. ``It makes it harder for those who want to perpetuate the myths to do so.''

In a panel discussion on the report, Pepperdine University senior fellow Joel Kotkin said there is a difference in this wave of immigrants. ``It's the first mass immigration to take place during the era of mass communications.''

This allows them to stay in touch with their country of origin more easily than ever before, but it also allows for their culture to make its mark on American society more quickly than before, he said.

The successful assimilation of immigrants is evident by where you can find them living, Kotkin said.

``The most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in the United States today are the inner suburbs'' rather than just the inner cities, he said.

The study found evidence of assimilation, according to Census Bureau data, including:

More than three-quarters of immigrants who had lived in the United States for 40 years were naturalized.

Within 20 years of their U.S. arrival, more than six out of 10 immigrants owned their own homes.

Within 10 years of their arrival, more than three-quarters of immigrants spoke English with high proficiency.

By the third generation, one third of Latino women marry non-Latino men and 41 percent of third generation Asian-American women have non-Asian husbands. Foreign-born Latinos and Asians have higher rates of intermarriage than U.S.-born whites and African-Americans.

In 1998, about 18 percent of the foreign-born U.S. population was living in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, according to government figures.