You might argue about the direction of the causal arrows: Are immigrants drawn to areas that already have strong economies? Or do they make economies stronger by their presence? Probably some of both is true. But the result is unmistakable. Across much of the plains and rural midwestern region of the United States, what has kept communities alive is new arrivals, mainly from countries to the south. The graphic below, from Pew, looks complex but is very informative. Its message is: areas that have attracted immigrants have continued to grow, and others have plateaued or shrunk. [...]
In southwestern Kansas, it’s easy to see the demographic age-pyramid typical of areas undergoing rapid and ongoing immigration. That is, the younger the age bracket, the larger its Latino proportion. The school-age population of Dodge City is 70 to 80 percent foreign-born, mainly Latino. The town’s population as a whole is more than half Latino. But the business and political leadership, mainly older members of longer-established families, is mainly white. Nothing about this is surprising: Through the long history of U.S. immigration, the first-generation arrivals concentrate on economic survival, leaving broader civic engagement to their children and grandchildren. I asked De La Rosa whether he consciously thought of himself as part of a transition in the Latino community’s local role.
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