WASHINGTON – U.S.-born children of Hispanic immigrants are more likely than their parents to identify themselves as Democrats as they integrate into American life, maintaining strong ties to their cultural heritage while casting themselves as liberal on social issues.

A wide-ranging study released Thursday by the Pew Research Center lays bare some of the difficulties for the Republican Party following elections last November, when President Obama won with support from 80 percent of nonwhite and ethnic voters. The report tracks the socioeconomic progress and views of second-generation Americans, the bulk of them Latinos and Asians who were born in the U.S. after a 1965 immigration law opened U.S. borders to millions of non-Europeans.

“What’s striking over the past several decades is that the two groups at the heart of the modern immigration wave – Hispanics and Asian-Americans – have both been trending Democratic over time, as they sink their roots deeper into American society,” Paul Taylor, Pew’s executive vice president, said in an interview.

“Many decades ago, Ronald Reagan is said to have described Hispanics as ‘Republicans who don’t know it yet.’ Well, it’s 2013, and they apparently still haven’t figured it out,” he said.

The report says adult children of immigrants as a group are integrating into U.S. society and doing generally better than newly arrived immigrants in median income, educational attainment and English fluency. The second-generation group also reports increased social ties, including intermarriage, with other racial and ethnic groups.

The study is based on Pew’s analysis of census data as of March 2012, as well as prior years, supplemented with data from Pew polls including the 2011 and 2012 National Survey of Latinos and the 2012 Asian-American Survey. It uses commonly accepted demographic methods and models to track the population of different generations over time.

In a sign of challenges for the GOP, the generation that includes U.S.-born adult children of more recent Latino immigrants moved politically to the left of those in their parents’ generation.

Among Hispanics, 71 percent who are second-generation are Democrats or lean that way, compared with 63 percent in the first generation. Among Asians, the ratio also edged higher, 52 to 49, although not enough to be considered statistically significant.

In the broader public, 49 percent reported that they are Democrats or lean that way.