Dealing with Difference

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Dealing with Difference Summer Institute
Western Illinois University May 18, 2003
Latinos Remaking America Marcelo M.
Suárez-Orozco Victor S. Thomas Professor
Co-Director Harvard Immigration Projects Harvard
Graduate School of Education 511 Larsen Hall,
Appian Way Cambridge, MA 02138 www.gse.harva
rd.edu/hip/
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Globalization has Stimulated the Largest
Migratory Flow in History The largest exodus
in the history of Latin America and the Caribbean
has been structured by globalizations emerging
regime. Transnational labor recruiting networks,
wage differentials, family reunification (Love
and Work), and the globalization of desire or
the libidinal logic of capitalism are behind new
migratory practices that cannot be easily
contained by the state. Globalization is
predicated on the 1) internationalization of
production and distribution of goods and services
that is fueled by growing levels of international
trade, foreign direct investment, and capital
market flows 2) the emergence of borderless
information and communication technologies that
stimulate the traffic of data, symbols, and
desire and that place a premium on knowledge
intensive work and 3) ever growing,
uncontainable waves of world-wide migration.
These phenomena give an unprecedented momentum to
todays global order.
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Immigration Changes the World In 2003, there
are 175 Million Immigrants 16 Million Refugees
WorldwideLeicester, England, will be the first
European City with non-white majorityFrankfurt
today is 25 immigrant Rotterdam is 45
immigrant. Amsterdam will by yr. 2015 be 50
immigrantChina alone has over 100 million
internal immigrants. Since 1990 about a
million new immigrants per annum have come to the
US. There are over 32.5 million immigrants, the
largest number in history (larger than the entire
Canadian population) but proportionally less than
in the previous eras of large-scale immigration.
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Immigrants Admitted to the United States 1821-1996
Adapted from INS, 1996
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Source Bureau of the Census
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REMARKABLY DIVERSE

• Economic Backgrounds
• Some are amongst the most educated and affluent
• Others have limited education and are working
  poor
• Linguistic backgrounds
• Over 100 languages in New York Public Schools
• Over 90 languages in Los Angeles Public Schools
• Five Top Languages Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese,
  Korean, Tagalog
• Ethnicity, Race, Color
• Nearly 80 are of color

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Immigrants Admitted from Top Countries of Birth
1990-2000
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Latino Population of the United States

• 1990 249 million total population
• 22.4 million Latino
• 9 of total population
• 2000 281 million total population
• 35.3 million Latino
• 12.5 of total population
• 1990 to 2000 change
• 13.0 million
• 58 increase since 1990

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• By 2003 Latinos are the nations largest ethnic
  group
• If we add Puerto Rico and count undocumented
  immigrants to the US, there are now over 43
  million Latinos in the US more than there are
  people in Spain, Colombia, Argentina and any
  other Spanish speaking country except for
  Mexico
• One in six babies born today have a Latina mother
  
• By 2050 the US will have nearly 100 Million
  Latinos
• The Latino GDP at 600 billion dollars is now
  larger than the GDP of Spain and Mexico. By 2010
  it will reach a trillion dollars.

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Census 2000 Top 10 States By Latino Population

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Census 2000 Top 10 Latino States By Percent Of
Total Latino

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Census 2000 Top 10 States By Latino Percent
Change

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Immigrant Children and Youth

• Research Theory is largely focused on adults
• One in Five Children in the U.S. is the child of
  an immigrant -- one in four in one generation
• Immigrant children are now the fastest growing
  sector of U.S. child population
• School Adaptation Patterns
• Second Generation Improvement/Third Generation
  Decline
• Best of Times Worst of Times Prison/Princeton
  Yale/Jail

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STRUCTURAL FEATURES OF THE NEW INTER-AMERICAN
IMMIGRATION SYSTEM By 2000, over 50 of All
Immigrants to the USA Originated in Latin America
or the Caribbean. THREE DOMINANT FEATURES
?Uninterrupted flows of large scale Mexican
immigration--rapidly intensifying after
1980-- structured by powerful economic forces
and socio-cultural practices unaffected by
unilateral policy initiatives. By 1990 there
were more legal immigrants from Mexico alone than
from all of Europe combined. By 2000 over 7
million Mexican immigrants were living in the
USA--constituting a third of the total
foreign-born population of the country. More
than one quarter of all Mexican
immigrants arrived in the last five years.
Mexican immigrants constitute 40 percent of the
Mexican-origin population of the US. About 40
percent of all undocumented immigrants in the
USA today are Mexicans. ?Time-limited waves
of large scale immigration from Central and South
America--by the 1980s Central American
replaces Cuba as the largest source of asylum
seekers from the Spanish- speaking world. During
the early 1980s well over a million Central
Americans settled in the USA. Today one in
every six Salvadoreans lives in the USA. (10
years 1 mill. law). About 2 million
Colombians have been displaced by the war
roughly 500,000 now make the US their home.
?Caribbean pattern of intense circular
movement--driven by transnational
circuits--typified by the Dominican and PR
experience in New York where they are now the
largest immigrant group.
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KEY POINTS

• ? Structural demand for foreign workers
  remains indeed seems to be recession proof.
• ? The recent immigration momentum, the 4th
  largest wave the 20th century, seems structured
  by economic forces, social practices, cultural
  models that are not easily contained by
  unilateral policy initiatives.
• ? Paradox of Transnationalism While
  transforming Latin America (1million 1 bill.
  law), Latinos are transforming the US

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Concluding Thoughts

• Current trends suggest that our country and the
  state of Illinois will be more diverse in the
  future
• Current trends suggest diversity will penetrate
  and transform all sectors of our country and your
  community from the research at the University, to
  a more global student body, and a more diverse
  population
• Current trends suggest that next generation is
  more likely than ever before in human history to
  need need the skills and sensibilities to work
  with others that will be of different race,
  color, religion, national origins, and linguistic
  background
• Diversity is at the heart of democracy's promise
  and it is also a most invigorating force