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Texas Becomes a Majority-Minority State
Topic Started: Aug 11 2005, 07:56 PM (262 Views)
24thcenstfan
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Something Wicked This Fae Comes
This seems to be the hot topic on the news today. What do you think will be the political, economic and educational ramifications of a growing majority of minorities?

As a side note, I think if illegals could be counted in the Census, I suspect Texas would have reached this marker along time ago.

Texas Becomes a Majority-Minority State

Quote:
 
By ALICIA A. CALDWELL

EL PASO, Texas (AP) - Texas has become the fourth state to have a non-white majority population, the U.S. Census Bureau said Thursday, a trend driven by a surging number of Hispanics moving to the state.

According to the population estimates based on the 2000 Census, about 50.2 percent of Texans are now minorities. In the 2000 Census, minorities made up about 47 percent of the population in the second-largest state.

Texas joins California, New Mexico and Hawaii as states with majority-minority populations - with Hispanics the largest group in every state but Hawaii, where it is Asian-Americans.

Five other states - Maryland, Mississippi, Georgia, New York and Arizona - aren't far behind, with about 40 percent minorities.

Public policy analysts said these states and the country as a whole need to bring minority education and professional achievement to the levels of whites. Otherwise, these areas risk becoming poorer and less competitive.

William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., said lawmakers need to start with immigration reform, while striving to bring minorities' education and salary levels in line with Anglos.

"Immigration is good for the United States ... it's important for us to keep our doors open, but we need to keep an eye on the people coming in," Frey said. "While initially it will be a state problem, eventually it will be a national issue, and education is the best way to deal with it."

Complications from the cultural shift aren't likely to be exclusive to states that already have majority-minority populations, Frey said.

Nevada, for instance, has seen a massive influx of minorities in the last 15 years, reducing the percentage of Anglos since the 1990s from nearly 80 percent to about 60 percent. Such a rapid shift is likely to cause growing pains that include trying to balance the needs of a bigger and younger minority community with an aging Anglo community, Frey said.

"That's the kind of state that is going to have to deal with quick transition," Frey said.

Though some areas may never see this shift, the country as a whole is expected to continue the trend first noticed more than a decade ago.

The nation should be more than half minorities by 2050, said Steve Murdock, a demographer at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

"If you look in the 1990s, in every one of the 50 states, non-Anglo Hispanic populations grew faster than Anglo populations," Murdock said. "It's a very pervasive pattern."
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psyfi
psyfi
24thcenstfan
Aug 11 2005, 07:56 PM
This seems to be the hot topic on the news today. What do you think will be the political, economic and educational ramifications of a growing majority of minorities?

As a side note, I think if illegals could be counted in the Census, I suspect Texas would have reached this marker along time ago.

Texas Becomes a Majority-Minority State

Quote:
 
By ALICIA A. CALDWELL

EL PASO, Texas (AP) - Texas has become the fourth state to have a non-white majority population, the U.S. Census Bureau said Thursday, a trend driven by a surging number of Hispanics moving to the state.

According to the population estimates based on the 2000 Census, about 50.2 percent of Texans are now minorities. In the 2000 Census, minorities made up about 47 percent of the population in the second-largest state.

Texas joins California, New Mexico and Hawaii as states with majority-minority populations - with Hispanics the largest group in every state but Hawaii, where it is Asian-Americans.

Five other states - Maryland, Mississippi, Georgia, New York and Arizona - aren't far behind, with about 40 percent minorities.

Public policy analysts said these states and the country as a whole need to bring minority education and professional achievement to the levels of whites. Otherwise, these areas risk becoming poorer and less competitive.

William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., said lawmakers need to start with immigration reform, while striving to bring minorities' education and salary levels in line with Anglos.

"Immigration is good for the United States ... it's important for us to keep our doors open, but we need to keep an eye on the people coming in," Frey said. "While initially it will be a state problem, eventually it will be a national issue, and education is the best way to deal with it."

Complications from the cultural shift aren't likely to be exclusive to states that already have majority-minority populations, Frey said.

Nevada, for instance, has seen a massive influx of minorities in the last 15 years, reducing the percentage of Anglos since the 1990s from nearly 80 percent to about 60 percent. Such a rapid shift is likely to cause growing pains that include trying to balance the needs of a bigger and younger minority community with an aging Anglo community, Frey said.

"That's the kind of state that is going to have to deal with quick transition," Frey said.

Though some areas may never see this shift, the country as a whole is expected to continue the trend first noticed more than a decade ago.

The nation should be more than half minorities by 2050, said Steve Murdock, a demographer at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

"If you look in the 1990s, in every one of the 50 states, non-Anglo Hispanic populations grew faster than Anglo populations," Murdock said. "It's a very pervasive pattern."

It is not surprising. Within 100 years, the United States of America will have shifted from people of predominately European backgrounds to people of Hispanic (mostly Mexican) backgrounds. I think that a good education is important but equally important is making sure that the values that made and make our country great continue to be accepted and passed on. Hopefully, they will be.
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Ngagh
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Huh?
Until there is a radical shift from minority getting poor jobs and making up the majority population of ghetto's and slums I think that the US is on a slippery slope downward. Don't get me wrong, as someone who has lived on the wrong side of the tracks I know that there are good people that live there and want something more. But there are also those who idolized the illegal lifestyle and see it as a status symbol to be poor and ignorant.

Until we get better role models for minority children, and better job placement programs for new immigrants, I don't think that the greatness of North America will last.
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Admiralbill_gomec
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Actually, the census does count illegals. It is estimated there are over a million illegal aliens in Texas.
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24thcenstfan
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Something Wicked This Fae Comes
Admiralbill_gomec
Aug 12 2005, 07:56 AM
Actually, the census does count illegals. It is estimated there are over a million illegal aliens in Texas.

Can you provide a source? I checked the USCB site and what they do is take data on Foreign-Borns. Which includes, “naturalized U.S. citizens, Lawful Permanent Residents (immigrants), temporary migrants (such as students), humanitarian migrants (such as refugees), and persons illegally present in the United States.”


Illegals fall into that category, but as far as I could find it is not broken down any further (i.e. they do not list the number of illegals).

If they do, and I just can’t locate the chart, I seriously doubt the figures are accurate. I don’t see people outright admitting that they have illegals living in their household.

While it does not say in the article I linked, I do not get the impression that they are specifically factoring in illegals. Just people immigrating to the state of Texas. The US Census Bureau defines immigrants as people here lawfully. However, some illegals were probably factored in regardless when the race data was collected.
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24thcenstfan
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psyfi
Aug 11 2005, 10:21 PM
It is not surprising. Within 100 years, the United States of America will have shifted from people of predominately European backgrounds to people of Hispanic (mostly Mexican) backgrounds.  I think that a good education is important but equally important is making sure that the values that made and make our country great continue to be accepted and passed on. Hopefully, they will be.

Absolutely. Both education and making sure we do not lose or neglect to teach the principles that this country was founded on are key. A part of that process will be encouraging assimilation in certain areas. Language being the most important IMO.
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24thcenstfan
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Something Wicked This Fae Comes
Ngagh
Aug 11 2005, 10:35 PM
Until there is a radical shift from minority getting poor jobs and making up the majority population of ghetto's and slums I think that the US is on a slippery slope downward. Don't get me wrong, as someone who has lived on the wrong side of the tracks I know that there are good people that live there and want something more. But there are also those who idolized the illegal lifestyle and see it as a status symbol to be poor and ignorant.

Until we get better role models for minority children, and better job placement programs for new immigrants, I don't think that the greatness of North America will last.

One of the primary ways this shift will occur will be through educational and economic prosperity. There are many factors working against some minorities in this regard, but most of all it is the individual mindset that keeps people from succeeding in life and rising above their current circumstances.

There is a culture of hopelessness and failure that is pervasive in ghettos. Unless that is first addressed at home (from the parent), then there isn't much hope of society in general of exerting enough influence to combat this.
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Hoss
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Don't make me use my bare hands on you.
Successful people don't wait around for someone to give them a handout. Successful people determine their own destiny. There are lots of successful minorities out there that have bootstrapped themselves because of character and hard work. I was born into rural poverty in South Texas and I didn't feel any compulsion to stay there waiting for someone to feel sorry for me.
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Swidden
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Personal Editorial Commentary

As one who lives in a community that is over 70% Hispanic, I am not particularly worried about the future of the US and its ideals. Bear in mind this is my subjective experience, but I do find that there is a healthy respect for the precepts upon which this country was founded.

Considering that our local economy is heavily tied to agriculture there still tends to be a high presence of illegal field workers. However, there is also an expanding Hispanic Middle Class here. The children and grandchildren of previous generations of Latino immigrants are doing the same thing that the children and grandchildren of Italian, German, Irish, English, (and in this area particularly) Portuguese, Croatians, Filipino, Japanese and Chinese immigrants. They are going off to college and getting thier education. One difference in my area seems to be the retained sense of family ties that the Hispanic population has over some of the others. Where most of the people I grew up with that were of similar ethnic background have since moved to other areas (many to the Silicon Valley), many of the Hispanic kids I grew up with came back here to put thier education to work.

Our local political structure has some very dynamic indviduals of Hispanic extraction that fall in line with both conservative and liberal ideologies. Sometimes very extreme on both sides (there was a very ugly battle involving our under 30, hispanic, and conservative mayor and the liberal hispanic faction a while back). During the Gray Davis Recall there were a number of stories in the California papers regarding how the "family values" ideas resonate well with older Hispanic voters. Young Hispanic males, it was thought, might also identify with the strong, rugged image projected by Schwarzenegger.

From what I can see, on a personal level, while the skin tone of the US may darken some, I still believe that our system will survive. Who knows what the world situation will be in another hundred years. There may come a time when human immigration patterns change radically once again. However, as long as the Constitution and the principles upon which this country was founded remain in place, that is what will set us apart.

End Personal Editorial Commentary
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who
Have light saber. Will travel.
Swidden, it is good to hear your optimistic view. I hope things continue to improve.
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Admiralbill_gomec
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Swidden
Aug 15 2005, 12:32 PM

From what I can see, on a  personal level, while the skin tone of the US may darken some, I still believe that our system will survive. Who knows what the world situation will be in another hundred years. There may come a time when human immigration patterns change radically once again. However, as long as the Constitution and the principles upon which this country was founded remain in place, that is what will set us apart.

I agree, as long as these groups start seeing themselves as AMERICANS first, and either hyphenated Americans or __________ (insert nationality here) second. That's the problem. I saw a protest of the Minutemen on TV when they were meeting in Las Vegas. The protestors were waving MEXICAN flags and waving signs in Spanish. In Las Vegas. In the United States. The protestors were NOT seeing themselves as Americans, but as (in this case) Mexicans. Not even as Mexican-Americans or Americans of Mexican descent. As a result, interest in the Minutemen has increased. Even Bill Richardson (governor of New Mexico, and a hispanic) is meeting with them.

Oddly, most hispanics (those born here) are against amnesty for illegal aliens. Problem is, you don't hear from them (the majority), you instead hear from the squeaky wheel poverty pimp activist types.

(Oh, for those looking for a source:)

http://www.borderlandnews.com/apps/pbcs.dl.../505190333/1001

http://www.npg.org/factsheets/imm_americans_spoken.html
(scroll down halfway)
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Hoss
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Don't make me use my bare hands on you.
Immigrants don't bother me. I have known lots of first, second and third generation immigrants from South of the border as well as Eastern Europe.

The first gen is a bit out of place, struggle with English, a bit of a tough time fitting in.

The second gen is fluent in English with a bit of an accent, was born into the culture so fits in well.

The third generation probably can't even speak his grandparents native language, and speaks English like me, is American in everyway.

I welcome reasonable immigration, we need it, it is one of our advantages. I am opposed to the attempt at multiculturalizing the USA, coddling immigrants, making excuses and allowances for them. Let them know that they are expected to assimilate and function as an American and they will.

I am in favor of tough restrictions on immigration from predominantly islamic countries, especially arabic.

The only immigrants that are really tough to deal with are the Canadians.
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Swidden
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Adm. Gadfly-at-large; Provisional wRench-fly at large
38957
Aug 15 2005, 03:04 PM
The only immigrants that are really tough to deal with are the Canadians.

If only because they blend in so well and are hard to detect. Sometimes you really have to listen for that unintentional "eh"... ;) :D :angel: :whistle: :bolt:
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Minuet
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:brow: :evil1:
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ds9074
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Admiral
Immigration is a big issue in this country. Its one of the hottest political topics around because there is a great deal of concern about it. This has only been hightened by the news that the London bombers were asylum seekers.

We had a problem a couple of years back where we had a massive number of asylum seekers comming into the country so the Government imposed restrictions and increased the number of those allowed in legally. Now that itself is causing a bit of a backlash.

The ethnic minority population of the UK is still far less than that of the US but in certain cities it is very high. There seems to however be a strange divide. Those in the cities where these people actually live in large numbers are usually not very concerned (with the exception of a few far right nutters). Those living in rural areas which are still almost all-white tend to be the ones who get more concerned and think that we are being swamped and our way of life is at risk.

That said most of the problem seems to come when you have fresh new immigrants who dont speak much English and are not very intergrated into the culture. People are naturally suspicious of them. Immigrants who came over after WW2 from the former colonies in the West Indies, India and the Far East seem to have intergrated much better. For example their foods are very popular and mainstream and their culture is enjoyed by a wider audience. They have also created a unique British______ culture. So for instance India food which is designed to appeal to UK tastes. Or those from the sub-continent making fun of themselves and their culture for comedy purposes in a very British way.

I'm hopefull that as time passes the newer arrivals will settle down the same. One thing is for sure we are going to have to get used to it. 40 years ago there was a stronger argument that these people were "taking our jobs" but we have a virtually declining white-populuation. The only real reason our population is growing is because of immigration.
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