I think most people recognize that a life growing up in the USA followed by the legal right to work and live here is a fairly huge step up in socioeconomic status from where most DACA-covered folk would have been had they not come to the USA.
But TFA was about socioeonomic mobility within the USA, not comparisons with Mexico, Peru or Bolivia. The success of a specific subgroup [0] of undocumented immigrants at moving upwards doesn't refute the general mobility findings cited in TFA, nor does it prove or disprove that their success is about smart work vs hard work vs adversity support. And I didn't mean to imply that neither hard nor smart work play a role in any upward social mobility, but rather that many people forget the role played by adversity support (and it's not a small role).
[0] According the article you cite, DACA covers 832,881 people, which is about 11% of the total undocumented immigrant population in the US at present (and if tales about an uncontrolled wave were correct, even less).
I'm not refuting the TFA. I am refuting the notion that people in American cannot move upwards. There is no group more disadvantaged than immigrants, who arrive with nothing, have no support structure, are discriminated against, and often don't even know the language. Yet they can and do succeed, as the DACA cohort shows.
Nothing in the TFA or anyone's comments (dangerously broad, I know) said that people could NOT move upwards.
It said that upward mobility is significantly lower in the USA than many other western industrial democracies, and also significantly lower than most Americans think it is.
But TFA was about socioeonomic mobility within the USA, not comparisons with Mexico, Peru or Bolivia. The success of a specific subgroup [0] of undocumented immigrants at moving upwards doesn't refute the general mobility findings cited in TFA, nor does it prove or disprove that their success is about smart work vs hard work vs adversity support. And I didn't mean to imply that neither hard nor smart work play a role in any upward social mobility, but rather that many people forget the role played by adversity support (and it's not a small role).
[0] According the article you cite, DACA covers 832,881 people, which is about 11% of the total undocumented immigrant population in the US at present (and if tales about an uncontrolled wave were correct, even less).