Do you blame them?
Posted on 07/31/2002 7:48:26 PM PDT by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
Las Vegas has emerged as one of the fastest growing destinations for Hispanic immigrants outside the nation's established Latino metropolitan areas, according to an analysis of two decades of census data.
The study, by the Pew Hispanic Center and Brookings Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy, examined the explosive growth in the nation's Hispanic population since 1980 and how it has differed in the 100 largest metropolitan areas. The findings show Las Vegas was one of 18 cities with Hispanic communities undergoing "hypergrowth," or growth of more than 300 percent, over that time frame.
Las Vegas' population increased by 270 percent since 1980, while the city's Hispanic population grew by 750 percent.
While growth in any segment of the population is to be expected in the nation's fastest growing city, researchers indicated other forces are at work in cities like Las Vegas.
One cause for such growth outside traditional Latino capitals such as Los Angeles, Miami and New York is that Hispanic immigrants are more likely to skip such gateway cities and instead settle in cities with vibrant and growing economies.
"I have seen it here and seen it in areas where before there was a tiny Hispanic population that has grown tremendously," said Fran Montes, president of Hispanics in Politics. "I think they're looking at these areas as greater opportunities for themselves and for their family."
In 2000, Hispanics totaled more than 320,000 and comprised 21 percent of the valley's population. Researchers said indications are that they will become an even greater presence in the future.
"You can see the seeds of future growth in this decade and probably into the next," said Roberto Suro, director of the Pew Hispanic Center and co-author of the study.
One indicator of future growth is the ratio of Hispanic men to Hispanic women.
Typical of the areas that have experienced rapid Hispanic growth over the past decades, Hispanic males outnumber their female counterparts in the valley, by a ratio of 120 to 100.
"Newcomers to an area are generally unattached males," explained Audrey Singer, a Brookings Center fellow and co-author of the study. "But over time, they bring their families and have children."
The study also found the majority of Hispanic immigrants now live in the nation's suburbs.
In Las Vegas, the 1990s brought a 278 percent increase in the suburban Hispanic population.
Otto Merida, executive director of the Latin Chamber of Commerce, said it is an indication of the Hispanic community's growing prosperity.
"It shows that the income of the Hispanic population is going up and allowing individuals to move into those particular areas," he said. "It shows progress and a positive trend."
Singer and Suro said the trends documented in their study should serve as a notice to local officials who will meet the needs of their growing Hispanic communities.
"In many ways, one could argue in the next 10 to 20 years that's where the impact will be felt," Suro said. "That's when you're going to see dramatic change in terms of a new kind of population and its impact on schools and housing and other social services."
I wonder which other cities are being blessed with"Hypergrowth" so I can stay clear of them
Do you blame them?
Well I'll tell ya.
I received an annoying computerized telemarketing call a couple days ago, right at dinner time.
Nothing special about that, except that it was the first time I ever received one of those in Spanish.
Sorry for the silly comic book reference!
Honest work all.
Yeah, it's weird to have Spanish names in a city named "Las Vegas". When you drove past that construction site today, and you saw all Hispanic workers there ... what was the temperature?
There have been hundreds of thousands of hotel rooms built in your city since 1969. I don't want to be crude frivilously ... but, how many people in Vegas vomited tonight on carpets, bedspreads, towels etc.? How many people used ashtrays and waste baskets as spitoons? Bathroom duties don't ALWAYS take place in the bathroom in the stupor that commands some visitors. Dumping out 40 beer bottles and cigarette laden cocktails into a sink you have to then make pristine is no fun. Cleaning around the toilet of a room housing four 22 year old men on party patrol is less fun.
Immigrants do those jobs. Those jobs suck, and they don't pay very well. Those jobs will never pay well, even though most are covered by unions. I planted trees and laid sod, I stocked shelves at warehouse food stores at 11 pm, I cleaned rental cars and I walked around a warehouse filling orders of Maybelline products, Bic pens and Goody combs. I wouldn't do it now, but I did it when I was 17 and it was virtuous work because that was all I was QUALIFIED to do. Nobody hired me as a financial planner or a 767 Captain back then. I made crap money, I did crap jobs. I'd be working with Mexicans at those jobs today, if - given the coddling of parents these days - I'd be working those jobs at all.
The prosperity of your state is in large part due to the contributions of ALL those folks who do the hospitality service jobs. The fact you pay no income tax. Judy, my first visit to Vegas was in 1982, and every maid at the Desert Inn was Mexican. I went to New York as a kid, stayed at the Holiday Inn in Manhattan, and every maid was Puerto Rican. In 50 years, the maids might be from Afghanistan or Niger. The third generation Mexican Americans will be doctors, architects, entrepreneurs, journeyman carpenters and bankers. That's America.
My heart is bleeding for them. If you have no education, can't speak English, don't have the proper papers to work here then you should be damn glad you have a job PERIOD. Plus no one is forcing them to work there! Also they take what they do earn and send 1/2 of it back to Mexico so that it never helps the American economy. I find them to be nothing but a plague on society.
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