A rising number of the teenage immigrants who arrive in the United States are dropping out of schools or simply not registering to complete high school at all, according to one of three reports issued on November 10 by the Pew Center for Hispanic Studies.

Richard Fry, the author of the study, indicated that the youths, between the ages of 15 and 17, bring their educational problems with them from their countries of origin. But he also suggested that the “language barrier” and economic exigencies are among the factors that lead to their dropping out.

“Many of them go to work,” Fry said.

Of the eight percent of adolescents in the school system who are of foreign origin, 25 percent drop their studies or never register for high school, the Pew study asserts, based on data from the most recent census.

“The dropout rate in 2000 among the 560,000 immigrants stood at 16.4 percent,” the report said, adding that Mexicans and Central Americans are those most affected by this problem.

In a second study, the Pew Center for Hispanic Studies points out that 56 percent of Hispanics attend the most overpopulated public schools, compared with 32 percent of African Americans and 26 percent of whites.

A third investigation, focused on higher education, shows that in spite of the increase in Hispanic enrollment in colleges and universities from 1996 to 2001, there is still a large gap in comparison with the enrollment of white students.