Thread: SC Is the low country`s Hispanic population declining ?

Is the Lowcountry's Hispanic population declining?
By TIM DONNELLY and MICHAEL WELLES SHAPIRO
tdonnelly@islandpacket.com mshapiro@islandpacket.com
Published Sunday, June 29, 2008


Photo: Jesus Martinez counts change for a customer Thursday at Tienda Y Tortilleria San Jose on Hilton Head Island. According to Martinez, business at the store began slowing a couple of months before Christmas.
Kristin Goode/The Island Packet
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The tienda that Jesus Martinez and his family run on Arrow Road doesn't have much room to walk around in. Elaborate piñatas hang low from the shop's ceiling, and customers weave in and out of narrow aisles stocked with Hispanic foods, produce and coolers filled with fresh tortillas.

Up until recently, you could barely move in the Tienda Y Tortilleria San Jose during the midday rush.

"We used to be packed all the time," Martinez said while ringing up the lunch tab for a worker from a local landscaping company wearing an orange vest. "But right now, it's slow."

"This year is real, real low."

The tienda caters to mostly Hispanic customers who come in to shop for goods from their home countries or stock up on spices and peppers not available in regular grocery stores.

But the store is experiencing what other businesses, agencies and organizations throughout southern Beaufort County have noticed in recent months: After years of growth, the area's Hispanic population is declining, rapidly by some accounts.

The anemic economy and new laws aimed at illegal immigrants are probably the cause, business owners and social services groups said.

"They're leaving the area because they feel threatened. A lot of them have already left and a lot are planning to leave," said Cristina Willett, president of Bluffton-based Dream Homes Incorporated, a construction and design firm.

"Some of these people who are leaving are well-trained and very skilled technicians, and I'm just wondering who will replace them."

'PEOPLE AREN'T COMING'

There were 11,363 Hispanic residents in Beaufort County in 2006, almost a 40 percent increase from 2000, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. No other verifiable and regular measurement of the area's Hispanic population is available, so the size of the population shift is hard to quantify.

But anecdotal evidence indicates that the slow housing market and the tightening local economy have shriveled the workforce in construction, food service and hospitality -- industries that many immigrants traditionally rely on for jobs.

Add to that the recent laws enacted in Beaufort County and in the South Carolina Statehouse that aim to ferret out illegal immigrants and their employers, and it's no surprise the area's Hispanic population is leaving, some say.

Some are headed back to home countries, while others are moving to states where jobs are still plentiful. The migration began when the housing bubble burst in 2006, but it really ramped up this year, observers say.

"People aren't coming," said Nathan Labish, who handled human resources for a small Hilton Head-based landscaping company until a few months ago. "The area has a stigma attached to it. People can go to North Carolina where things are a little easier, and that just drives up the cost of labor here."

A combination of factors is probably responsible for the population shift, said Luis Bell, executive director of the Latin American Council of South Carolina. One of those factors is that as the economy slumps and fewer jobs are available, workers who aren't tied to the area have little reason to stick around, he said.

"By this time of the year, there would normally be a lot of the work," Bell said. "But evidently this summer has not been as other summers before."

Opponents of illegal immigration might herald the decreasing population as a sign of success of the new county and state laws that penalize businesses caught hiring undocumented workers.

But it's still unclear what the long-term effects of those laws will be on the economy, said Anne Marie Adams-Arrington, executive director of the Hilton Head Area Hospitality Association.

When recruitment for summer staff began this spring, employers from restaurants, hotels and elsewhere had to reach farther geographically to find workers than in years past, she said. Some went to Hampton County or Savannah, or reached out at job fairs in North Carolina, Georgia and beyond to find specialized trade workers, she said.

"Right now the economy is driving any decision to continue to ...stay here for employment," she said. "That would not be unusual for a population, whether they were illegal or legal."

FEWER NEEDS

Even charitable groups are noticing fewer Hispanic people walking through their doors.

Literacy Volunteers of the Lowcountry has seen an estimated 10 percent drop since last year in the number of people enrolled in its free English as a Second Language classes, executive director Nancy Williams said.

Many of the group's clients are mobile and move where the work is, she said.

"The atmosphere (in Beaufort County) is uncertain, and it is less than welcoming," she said.

Starting in the winter, the Hilton Head-based Deep Well Project noticed a drop in the number of Hispanics looking for help with housing, food or other services, executive director Betsy Doughtie said. The numbers never picked up again when the warm season returned, she said.

"What we are seeing as well is people who have made a commitment to the community who have been here for several years and have been productive members of our society, who now all of a sudden cannot find work because they are not legal," Doughtie said.

FAMILIES LEAVING?

Paul Groeschel operates the Hispanic Office of Legal Assistance at St. Francis By the Sea, which helps immigrants obtain legal immigration status. More illegal immigrants are leaving because they can't find work, he said.

"The thing that disturbs me is the families that are leaving -- they're good families," he said. "They have children who are born here."

However, public schools have not seen an exodus of Hispanic students, according to school spokesman John Williams.

Schools are required under federal law to educate children, regardless of their immigration status. And immigrants with families are less mobile than single men, who can move to find new jobs, business leaders said.

The Hispanic population of the schools increased from 1,655 students in the 2002-03 school year to 3,218 in the 2006-07 year, according to district data. Hispanic students now make up about 17 percent of the total student population. Bluffton Elementary School has the largest Hispanic population, with 343 children enrolled, about 34 percent of its student body.

Back at the tienda, Martinez said people have been sending less money home to their families because of the declining dollar. Some are even going back to Mexico. Workers still walk out with Styrofoam boxes filled with lunch, but there's no doubt business at the family store has slowed.

"The economy of the U.S. right now is real tough on everybody," he said.
http://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/ ... 36972.html

"They're leaving the area because they feel threatened. A lot of them have already left and a lot are planning to leave," said Cristina Willett, president of Bluffton-based Dream Homes Incorporated, a construction and design firm.

"Some of these people who are leaving are well-trained and very skilled technicians, and I'm just wondering who will replace them."

What a crock! If they were "well-trained and very skilled technicians", they would have been here LEGALLY! Nice try sister, but not buying it!

Originally Posted by miguelina

"They're leaving the area because they feel threatened. A lot of them have already left and a lot are planning to leave," said Cristina Willett, president of Bluffton-based Dream Homes Incorporated, a construction and design firm.

"Some of these people who are leaving are well-trained and very skilled technicians, and I'm just wondering who will replace them."

What a crock! If they were "well-trained and very skilled technicians", they would have been here LEGALLY! Nice try sister, but not buying it!

Cristina Willett... here is a little message to ya from Steve Perry of Journey

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8hJ7NCnE54

Back at the tienda, Martinez said people have been sending less money home to their families because of the declining dollar. Some are even going back to Mexico. Workers still walk out with Styrofoam boxes filled with lunch, but there's no doubt business at the family store has slowed.

Business also declines for the citizens when the economy is in a slump for restaurants....and other places. People bring their lunch from home....or sometimes can't afford to eat. Maybe if so many of these "family owned" businesses weren't catering to just one group who supported them, business might not be so bad. If your business is soley dependant on the illegals, then you haven't learned basic business rules to survive here.

They're leaving the area because they feel threatened. A lot of them have already left and a lot are planning to leave," said Cristina Willett, president of Bluffton-based Dream Homes Incorporated, a construction and design firm.

"Some of these people who are leaving are well-trained and very skilled technicians, and I'm just wondering who will replace

How is an illegal able to work as a "well-trained and very skilled technician?" Further, why would such a person who was legal (and authorized to work) just pack up and leave?

It appears to me Cristina Willett condones the hiring of illegal invaders to fill jobs within the home building industry.

She wonders, "who will replace these illegal invaders?"

How about the American citizens who have been displaced within the construction industry because people like you feel it's ok to hire an illegal invader at the expense of American citizens.

Ive always wondered why ICE doesnt go after the homebuilders. Ive heard that illegal aliens are opening their own construction companies and outbidding American workers because they dont take taxes out on their illegal alien employees.

Maybe it is time to move your little business to Mexico....join the traitor corporations!!!

Here let me fix the name of your company for you Christina.



Dream Homes and the over the wall roof gang

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