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Hispanic Women of Arkansas gather for annual conference
BY KATE WARD Northwest Arkansas Times

Posted on Sunday, September 17, 2006


Hispanic Women of Arkansas hosted their annual conference, “ Celebrating Education, Culture and Community, ” on Saturday in conjunction with Hispanic Heritage Month.

“ I want to dispel any of the myths people may have about immigrants, ” said Randy Capps, acting director of the Immigration Studies Program at the Urban Institute. Capps, who served as this year’s keynote speaker, is a demographer with expertise in the integration of immigrants and their children. During his presentation Saturday, he spoke about national trends in immigration, immigrant dispersal to Arkansas and characteristics of immigrants.

“ No one knows for sure how many unauthorized immigrants are coming into the United States, ” he said. “ In the early ’ 90 s, it was estimated that there were approximately 200, 000 to 300, 000 coming in each year. Current estimates range between 850, 000 and 1 million each year. ”

According to Capps, nearly 11. 1 million immigrants living in the United States are unauthorized. In addition, nearly half of all U. S. immigrants, he said, are from Latin America — mainly Mexico.

“ While two-thirds of all immigrants live in six states — California, Texas, New York, New Jersey, Illinois and Florida — Arkansas is one of the top 10 states with the fastest growing immigrant populations, ” he said. “ Out of those 10 states, Arkansas comes in fourth place. Between 1990 and 2000, Arkansas’ immigrant population grew nearly 200 percent. When it comes to states with the fastest growing Hispanic population, Arkansas comes in at No. 1. ”

Capps said most immigrants come to the United States to fill unskilled work positions. Currently, nearly 44 percent of the U. S. immigrant population, he said, hold low-skilled work positions in fields such as agriculture, construction and manufacturing.

“ The graduation rate for native-born Americans has increased over the years, ” Capps said. “ The immigrants are filling the jobs that the native people can’t fill because of their education level. If people with college degrees were working low-skilled jobs, we’d have underemployment. ”

While 93 percent of unauthorized male immigrants are currently employed, Capps said the employment rate for female immigrants is nearly half that.

“ They have very strong family values, ” he said. “ In a lot of cases, the women are having the children and staying at home. ”

But unlike most family structures, Capps said, most children of immigrants have more rights than their parents.

“ If they’re born in America, they have the same rights and privileges that you and I have, ” he said. “ The children of immigrants have what we call a ‘ mixed status. ’ Currently, there are about 10 million kids who live in a mixed-status family. ”

Capps said 93 percent of immigrants’ children 5 and younger are U. S. citizen, while 72 percent of children 12 to 17 are citizens.

“ For education, this can be challenging, especially for the older kids” he said. “ They came from a foreign school, they don’t speak much English and they’re subjected to higher achievement standards. ”

Hispanic Women of Arkansas is a nonprofit organization that was founded by a group of mostly Hispanic women in 1999 who were concerned with the well-being of their families and community. The annual group’s conference is held to recognize the roles, participation and contributions of the Hispanic community and to promote higher education. The conference also highlights programs, presents research findings and discusses issues affecting Hispanics in Arkansas.