Thread: NC-Immigrants embrace Southern living

Immigrants embrace Southern living
Appeal of affordable homes, better opportunities drawing more to cities like Charlotte.
By Franco Ordoñez
fordonez@charlotteobserver.com
September 20, 2009

Carola Cárdenas left her native Venezuela twice to live in the United States. Both times she moved to cities that have long attracted large numbers of immigrants, first to Los Angeles, then New York.

But after four years living in the shadow of Manhattan in nearby New Jersey, Cárdenas, 36, and her husband decided to plant some roots elsewhere. They chose Charlotte - far away from any traditional immigrant gateway.

"We had the idea of forming a family," she says. "We now have a daughter. And we were definitely looking for what would be the best place to raise a child."

The family's story reflects the path that many immigrants, here legally or not, are taking - from U.S. urban enclaves filled with immigrants who share their language and culture to Southern cities like Charlotte that offer appealing and affordable suburban lifestyles.

A study published this year by the New York-based Center for an Urban Future found that a growing number of successful immigrants in New York are moving to Southern cities that boast a lower cost of living and a better chance to achieve middle-class goals like homeownership and sending their children to college.

Analysts say the trend reflects immigrants' greater assimilation and movement up the economic ladder. It also reflects new migration patterns that have been created as large numbers from ethnic communities have spread into regions that traditionally had very little diversity.

"What we're seeing is in the bigger, more established cities, - Los Angeles, New York, Chicago - those places have become more limited, so immigrants are looking for opportunities elsewhere," says Audrey Singer, an immigration specialist at the Brookings Institution. "If you look at the density of New York versus Charlotte, the housing prices, school issues, and the range of quality of life, some immigrants decide to take a chance."

Cárdenas, who became a U.S. citizen last year, lives in a two-story, four-bedroom house in South Charlotte with her husband, Miguel, 38, a graphic designer, and daughter Amelia, 3. They paid less for the house than any one-bedroom condo they considered buying in New Jersey.

Cárdenas, a membership and fundraising director for a YMCA branch, said they realized quickly that "we were not in New York anymore." But they were encouraged to hear Spanish on the radio, see a few stores and restaurants catering to immigrants, and learn of growing numbers of Latino businesses opening that could possibly use Miguel's services as a graphic designer.

Amelia runs through the living room - the pat pat of her tiny feet can be heard on the hardwood floor. She then appears in the kitchen and dashes past the dinner table. She turns left toward the family room and dives onto the leather couch.

Watching his daughter race around the house, Miguel Cárdenas says that five years ago, they never would have imagined having as much living space for an energetic toddler.

"Our friends are still surprised by the size of this house and our lifestyle," he says.

Perfecto Paredes, a district manager of Compare Foods and a native of the Dominican Republic, moved to Charlotte four years ago from New York City. He said friends from the city constantly ask him about Charlotte.

"They want to know about everything - the city, jobs, weather," he said.

More than a dozen uncles, aunts and cousins have followed Oscar Reto, a mortgage loan officer and a native of Peru, to Charlotte from New York since he moved here in 2001.

Detroit resident Roberto Sanchez travels to Charlotte often on business. He's long wanted to move to the region, saying the pace reminds him of life back home.

"The weather is very similar to Mexico," he said. "You don't need as much money. People are calmer, more easygoing."

North Carolina's Latino population has soared since the 1990s, growing more than 1,000 percent. But it's not just Latinos moving from the Northeast. High-tech professionals from India, teachers from Africa, and others from throughout the world are moving to Charlotte after stops in Chicago, Los Angeles and Miami.

More than 8 percent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg's 103,000 foreign-born residents moved to the area from another state in 2007, according to Census figures.

Such changes prompted the Levine Museum of the New South to dedicate a yearlong exhibit, "Changing Places: From Black and White to Technicolor," to the influx of people from around the world.

Pamela Grundy, curator of the exhibit, heard from several immigrants, including a man from India, that Charlotte reminded them more of home than the urban areas they left.

"The slower pace of life," she said. "The way people interact with each other. To some degree the focus on religion. It feels more like what they grew up with."

Carola Cárdenas first moved to Los Angeles when she was 4 years old. Her mother moved there to study English and initially stayed because of economic changes in Venezuela. They returned, however, when she was 16.

Cárdenas moved back to the United States in July 2000. They picked New Jersey because Miguel's brother lived there, and she found a job at a New York law firm. They found an apartment in an immigrant neighborhood in West New York, N.J.

They loved the activities, the sense of camaraderie and the friends they made in New Jersey. But when they decided to start a family, they knew they wanted better job opportunities, more space, and better schools.

"We fell in love with Charlotte," Cárdenas said. "It's not so tranquil that you're out in the middle of the boonies, but you still have the city life."



http://www.charlotteobserver.com/local/ ... 58392.html

North Carolina's Latino population has soared since the 1990s, growing more than 1,000 percent.

ILLEGALS!

Many parts of North Carolina are flooded with illegal aliens working for small businesses in the construction and landscaping industries. For the most part, these illegals work with fake social security cards, have taxes taken out so the employer can justify hiring them, and are paid well. Many of them have bought homes and have their illegal alien and anchor baby family members with them. North Carolinians continue to lose their jobs while illegal aliens keep on working.

Charlotte Observer (McClatchy Liberal Rag) would never call them illegal aliens, much less undocumented.

Come on... embracing "southern culture" is learning to make pie and the illegal aliens I know of, couldn't bake a pie to save their lives.

Dixie

Tent Cities soon in North Carolina, is the Governor ready for this next phrase?