Thread: Study: More than one in five children in U.S. are Latino

Our Shrinking Majority

Study: More than one in five children in U.S. are Latino

O.C. school officials and experts say they face challenges with more than half of the nation's 16 million Latino children U.S. born to at least one foreign-born parent.

BY CINDY CARCAMO
The Orange County Register

More than one in five of all children in the United States are Hispanic – a significant jump from 29 years ago when only about 9 percent of children were Latino, according to a Pew Hispanic report released today.

As the numbers have spiked, the profiles of Latino children have changed along with economic and social challenges they face nationwide and in Orange County, the study and local school and immigration experts said.

The study, called "Latino Children: A majority are U.S.-Born offspring of Immigrants," states that more than half of the nation's 16 million Latino children are now "second generation," which means they are the U.S.-born children of at least one foreign-born parent. In California the number of second generation Latino children is 62 percent.

In 1980, only about 30 percent of Latino children in the U.S. were second generation, while nearly 60 percent were in the third or higher generation, which means they were born to U.S. native parents.

"I think what you're seeing here are the consequences of 25 to 30 years of sustained high levels of immigration from Mexico and Latin America. These are the children of the immigrants from that period…," Louis DeSipio, UCI associate professor of Chicano Latino Studies, said of the second generation.

Along with this shift in demographics comes various difficulties, the study explains.

The second-generation Latino children are more likely to live in poverty and are less likely than third or higher generation children to be fluent in English and to have parents who completed high school.

The Orange County Department of Education is already familiar with the statistics and is addressing education challenges for this group of children, said County Superintendent of Schools Bill Habermehl.

"When I looked at the data, I said to others, if we don't do something aggressively in this county to recognize the issue and confront it with aggressive programs and structure, what we are going to see is a lot of drop out rates going up and test scores starting to go down and I don't want that to happen here in Orange County," Habermehl said.

He pointed to the Latino Education Attainment Initiative, created in 2005 with the goal of helping parents to become better advocates for their children by familiarizing them with the U.S. education system. The program is a collaboration among the United Way, Orange County Business Council, the O.C. Department of Education and The Orange County Register.

School officials have reached out to immigrant parents at churches and their places of work, recruiting and training 7,000 of them to become more active in their children's schools and to educate other parents in similar situations, Habermehl said.

"The project has been marvelous," Habermehl said. "When parents understand, kids' performance goes up."

There's no cost to the county to run the program because the United Way and Business Council have picked up the tab, Habermehl added.

In addition, the study said that from 2010 to 2025, the Hispanic child second-generation population is projected to grow by 33 percent. As that generation has children, the third generation or higher are projected to grow by more than 60 percent.

DeSipio said the Pew report helps dispel a stereotype about immigrants eventually going home.

"When we see the second generation…these are the figures of Orange County, California and the United States," he said. "…"Very high shares of them are born in the United States and are citizens of the United States. These people are here to stay."

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/chil ... ino-second

The second-generation Latino children are more likely to live in poverty and are less likely than third or higher generation children to be fluent in English and to have parents who completed high school.

The Orange County Department of Education is already familiar with the statistics and is addressing education challenges for this group of children, said County Superintendent of Schools Bill Habermehl.

Here we go, it is the responsibility of the rest of us to ensure equal outcomes, not just equal opportunity, by spending ever more and more tax dollars and resources to help specifically Hispanics. The ethnocentric Hispanic advocates get away with this insanity because they have hijacked the Civil Rights Movement and perverted it.

The Civil Rights Movement was started to redress real discrimination against African-Americans in the past, but ethnocentric Hispanic groups have hijacked and perverted it to ensure equal outcomes and preferential treatment for Hispanic illegal aliens and their children - not all recent immigrant groups, just Hispanic immigrant groups.

No other past group of immigrants was ever ensured preferential treatment and equal outcomes. They came to America legally for freedom and opportunity, not guarantees.

"…"Very high shares of them are born in the United States and are citizens of the United States. These people are here to stay."

We need to appeal the birthright citizenship amendment. We needed to do this yesterday. They have exploited and perverted the meaning of that amendment, and our leaders have let them.

So what they are born poor. So was I. I had a dad who deserted me, a stepfather who abused me, yet I will managed to graduate from college, marry, save money, and make a nice life for myself.

I had the OPPORTUNITY to do so because I made the right choices and lived in the best, most free country in the world where all the opportunities to do so are available, to EVERYONE who wishes to make the right choices and to work for it.

I am SICK of these special interests getting money because someone in their family unit made wrong choices -- a mother who became pregnant too early, a father who decided to desert the family, a brother who became involved in gang activity -- these are CHOICES that have nothing to do with one's ethnicity or past heritage.

We Americans are being royally RIPPED OFF by this liberal, racist special interest garbage.

What they are really going after is the 50,000 latino's in the United States that turn 18 every single month. Imagine what it is going to be in a few years....

Further proof that millions of illegals here are non working mothers of anchor babies and this whole immigration mess is not just about people coming here to find work. Wonder what percentage of the 16 million Latino children have illegal alien parents?

Originally Posted by jjmm

So what they are born poor. So was I. I had a dad who deserted me, a stepfather who abused me, yet I will managed to graduate from college, marry, save money, and make a nice life for myself.

I had the OPPORTUNITY to do so because I made the right choices and lived in the best, most free country in the world where all the opportunities to do so are available, to EVERYONE who wishes to make the right choices and to work for it.

I am SICK of these special interests getting money because someone in their family unit made wrong choices -- a mother who became pregnant too early, a father who decided to desert the family, a brother who became involved in gang activity -- these are CHOICES that have nothing to do with one's ethnicity or past heritage.

We Americans are being royally RIPPED OFF by this liberal, racist special interest garbage.

Good for you, jjmm. You have overcome a lot, a lot that is used as an excuse by weaker people. Many of them have been indoctrinated by their "advocates" to believe they have an excuse.

I don't know your race obviously. If you're not white, you probably get credit from others. If you are white, your story would probably be discounted automatically by others.

If you're a white male in particular, Nominee Sotomayor says your experiences can't possibly be as rich as hers, because of the color of your skin. I'm sorry for this prejudice against you.