Thread: SC - Beaufort County leads state in growth

http://www.beaufortgazette.com/local_ne ... 4715c.html

Beaufort County leads state in growth
Published Thursday November 16 2006
By TIM DONNELLY
The Island Packet
Beaufort County's booming construction industry, along with a demand for landscaping jobs and service industry workers is attracting an increasingly larger number of Mexican immigrants, according to the new University of South Carolina immigration study released Wednesday.
The county's Mexican immigrant population has grown from 2,168 in 1990 to 11,912 in 2005 by U.S. Census estimates, according to the study. The population has grown 45 percent just since 2000.

"They wind up going where they go because of jobs," said Elaine Lacy, the author of the study and director of research initiatives at the university's Consortium for Latino Immigration Studies.

Beaufort County has the third-highest Mexican immigrant population of the 15 counties surveyed, after Greenville and Spartanburg.

About 70 percent of the 181 immigrants interviewed for the study were undocumented. Lacy said the study found the population is largely self-propagating: Immigrants go where the jobs are, but they also congregate where they know people.

"It's job opportunities and also those connections," she said. "A very, very high percentage of people that came here said they have friends and family" in the area.

Illegal immigration has turned into a household debate in Beaufort County recently as the County Council considers an ordinance that would revoke the business license for anyone who knowingly hires illegal immigrants. The proposed ordinance has been applauded by some residents who say the area is being overrun with undocumented residents, and criticized by others who say it is largely unenforceable and has racist undertones.

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/16021381.htm

Many Mexican immigrants to S.C. new to U.S.
S.C. immigrants know little of U.S. when they arrive, moving directly here instead of from other U.S. states
By NOELLE PHILLIPS
nophillips@thestate.com

Mexican immigrants moving to South Carolina have little experience with the United States, which means their learning curve about laws, schools and health care is longer.

A USC study released Wednesday found Mexican immigrants are moving to South Carolina from southeastern Mexico, which does not have a long history of residents migrating to the United States.

“It’s not like western Mexico where you have had generations coming to the United States, and people are sitting around on Sunday afternoon talking about what it’s like to live in the United States,” said Elaine Lacy, research director for the USC Consortium of Latino Immigration Studies.

At the same time, Hispanic immigration is fairly new to South Carolina, so there isn’t an established Mexican community to nurture new residents, Lacy said.

“It takes a while for them to build up these networks.”

In the study of 181 Mexican immigrants, the consortium found 73 percent moved directly from Mexico to South Carolina, Lacy said.

That means immigration in South Carolina will have different implications than in other states, including Georgia and North Carolina where Mexican immigrants are moving from other American cities, she said.

In the past five years, South Carolina has recorded one of the fastest-growing Hispanic populations in the country. The Census Bureau estimates about 140,000 Hispanics live in the state, but Lacy said the number is two or three times higher. Of those Hispanic immigrants, 63 percent are from Mexico.

In the USC study, 73 percent of those interviewed were undocumented.

Lacy’s team spent two years interviewing and compiling information on Mexican immigrants in 14 S.C. counties.

The researchers want it to serve as a baseline report on the state’s Mexican population.

“What we wanted to do was learn in their own words their experiences,” Lacy said.

The full report will cover everything from jobs to church attendance to legal trouble.

Any research on South Carolina’s newest residents is important as the state tries to get a handle on immigration, especially during the 2007 legislative session, said Edgar Medina of the S.C. Hispanic Leadership Council.

Social, economic and political policies need to be based on facts, Medina said.

Otherwise, “they’re making decisions based on isolated instances,” Medina said.

Micaela Montes said she understands the new immigrants’ situation and hopes the rest of South Carolina does, too.

Montes moved to the United States from Hildago, Mexico, because she married a U.S. citizen. The couple moved to South Carolina after losing their jobs in New York as a result of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Montes chose Columbia because friends lived here and the transition was easy because she spoke English.

Those just arriving face a whole different set of issues, she said.

“You have no one to speak for you in the beginning.”

Reach Phillips at (803) 771-8307.