Thread: Hispanic Workers Changing Face of Dixie

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/3283552

July 27, 2005, 12:06AM

Hispanic workers changing face of Dixie
Immigrants flock to the rural South by the thousands
By MICHAEL HEDGES

Some of the effects of the rapid increase in Hispanic population in the rural South can be deduced by examining the numbers in the study:

• Poverty rate rise: The poverty rate for Latinos in those six states jumped to more than 25 percent in those states between 1990 and 2000, compared with a national drop of 4 percent.

• Preschool increase: The Hispanic population of preschool children rose 382 percent, with 110,000 new children added, in the 1990s. That was far more than the 43,000 white children added during the decade.

• Limited English: The number of children with limited English language proficiency more than tripled in the six states between 1990 and 2000.

WASHINGTON - Immigrants from Mexico and Central America have moved into the small towns of Dixie faster than in any other region of the country, according to a new study.

The Pew Hispanic Research Center documented the extent to which the foreign-born Hispanics chased jobs in areas without well-established infrastructures for dealing with new arrivals as they bypass states like Texas and California.

The report focused on North and South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and Arkansas, which had relatively small Latino populations before 1990 but saw them at least triple by 2000.

"The growth in the Latino population was even more dramatic at the county level, exceeding 1,000 percent in some counties and 500 percent in many others," the study said.

"For now, employers in the region are happy to have a dependable source of low-cost labor available to them," the researchers wrote, noting that the first wave of immigrants in the Southeast tended to be young, unmarried males.

"As the new immigrants grow older and utilize more health services, and as more wives join their husbands, the demands they make on public services will increase, but so too may their contributions to the tax base," the study said.

For the states in the Deep South where population groups had remained static for generations, the huge flow of immigrants marked a historic transformation, said Susan Martin, a Georgetown University professor involved in the study.

"We are in the midst of one of the longest and largest waves of immigration in U.S. history," she said. For parts of the Deep South, the sudden influx marks "the first real wave of immigration since the early 1900s."

While not directly studied, some less-populated parts of Texas fit the pattern, said Sonya Tafoya, one of the authors of the report. "In places like Houston, you have a long-established Latino population," she said. "But in other parts of the state, like Dallas County, you have this type of rapid migration of young Hispanic males."

The Latino population boom occurred at the same time those six Southern states were adding many native-born Americans from other states.

During the 1990s, the black population increased 21 percent in the states, and the white population rose 11 percent. The robust economies absorbed all the new arrivals without a rise in unemployment rates, which remained below national averages throughout the period.

The Pew study noted that an unemployment level much lower than the national average was the magnet for the workers, two-thirds of whom came directly from foreign countries.

michael.hedges@chron.com

• Poverty rate rise: The poverty rate for Latinos in those six states jumped to more than 25 percent in those states between 1990 and 2000, compared with a national drop of 4 percent.

• Preschool increase: The Hispanic population of preschool children rose 382 percent, with 110,000 new children added, in the 1990s. That was far more than the 43,000 white children added during the decade.

• Limited English: The number of children with limited English language proficiency more than tripled in the six states between 1990 and 2000.

If you think this is bad, wait until they update their figures to account for the 2000-2005 FLOOD known as Bushey Bomb's Secret Tsunami to end the United States.

This is amazing. This is just what the people from Georgia were telling me when I was there. They KNOW what is going on. They are so angry and upset with GWB it isn't even funny.

Apparently GWB made a speech in Atlanta last week about social security.
There were protesters there. They looked pretty organized from the pictures. Of course when he speaks, as we all know...no one can attend who disagrees with him. Wow. Democracy GWB style, huh?? Not good George. Not good for the people George. Not good for America.

And, isn't it interesting that ATLANTA, GEORGIA is home to the SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER, a 501 C 3 tax exempt non profit "public charity" whose mission I would assume is to PREVENT POVERTY in the South for American Citizens underwriting their organization.

BUT NO...SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER Is a Disguise, A Fraud like the ACLU against the American People in favor of FOREIGN NATIONALS...oh yeeeeah....SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER isn't doing anything to STOP POVERTY they are in fact doing EVERYTHING POSSIBLE to INCREASE POVERTY...IN THE SOUTH.

Where is Southern Poverty Law Center on every immigration issue? Why yes on the side of foreign nationals from foreign lands invading our country illegally.

Where is Southern Poverty Law Center with repsect to the MINUTE MEN trying to stop this invasion? They fly down to Arizona to cry "vigilante" and "white supremacist" and "racist" at American Citizens trying to enforce our laws because the US Government refuses to do so.

The result is INCREASED POVERTY.

Hey!! Maybe INCREASING PIVERTY was their secret mission all along!!

SHUT THESE ORGANIZATIONS DOWN!!