HISPANICS: A PEOPLE IN MOTIONORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AS A CHAPTER IN TRENDS
2005 MAJOR FINDINGS Please see the full report at http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/40.pdf. INTRODUCTION: 2004 POPULATION BY RACE, ETHNICITY, AND DISTRIBUTION The 2000 census recorded the Hispanic population at 35.3 million people, an increase of 58% over 1990. The total Hispanic population in 2004 was 40.4 million, a jump of more than 14%. ( for more complete information about the distribution and growth of ethnic populations in the United States see Comparison and Projected Growth of U.S.Population by Race and Hispanic Origin: 1990-2050, in the Demographic Section of the DIVERSITY RESOURCE CENTER). The affect of Latino population growth is magnified by the fact that:
A substantial share of the growth, particularly in the past decade, has come through illegal immigration. Although there are no exact numbers, demographers who specialize in immigration estimate that the total undocumented population in this country is currently 10 million. Roughly 60% are believed to come from Mexico and another 20% from the rest of Latin America, bringing the Hispanic share of that total to 80%, or 8 million. Latino immigrants, most of them young adults in their prime child-bearing years, have proved highly fertile, with birth rates twice as high as those of non-Hispanics. Consequently, Latino population growth in the next few decades will be driven primarily by increases in the second generation. THE HISPANIC LABOR FORCE The rapid increase in the Hispanic population has made it the second-largest ethnic or racial group in the labor force behind whites. Latinos now make up 13% of the U.S. labor force, but they are expected to account for about one half of the growth in the labor force between now and 2020. Hispanics also account for a disproportionate share of new jobs. Despite their success in finding employment, Latino workers, especially recent immigrants, are less educated and less experienced than other workers. As a result, they are concentrated in relatively low-skill occupations, have a higher unemployment rate and earn less than the average for all workers. Poverty is also high among Latino households and wealth accumulation is low; Hispanic households own less than 10 cents for every dollar in wealth owned by white households. Meanwhile, Latino immigrants retain strong economic ties to their countries of origin and many of them regularly send money home. According to the Inter-American Development Bank, more than $30 billion was remitted to Latin American and Caribbean countries in 2003. SCHOOLING The rapidly increasing number of Hispanic children in the U.S. population has led to increases in school enrollments since 1980 that will continue. As their numbers have increased, Hispanic youths have been doing better in school: a rising proportion of U.S.–educated Hispanic children finish high school and more are going on to college. However, even though Latino youths have narrowed some important educational gaps, Latinos continue to lag behind white students at all key milestones of their educational journey. In high school, Hispanic youths complete a less rigorous curriculum and, on average, score lower on national assessments and college entrance examinations. Although college entry has significantly expanded among Hispanic youths, they remain much less likely to finish college than their white peers. For example, among those Hispanic college entrants within an average or near-average level of high school preparation attending non-selective colleges, 43 percent complete a Bachelors Degree compared to 63 percent of a similar group of white students. HISPANIC IDENTITY The Hispanic population is not a racial group, nor does it share a common language or culture. The single over-arching trait that all Hispanics share in common is a connection by ancestry to Latin America. This population, in fact, traces its origins to many countries with varied cultures, and while some Latinos have family histories in the United States that date back centuries, others are recent arrivals. Some speak only English, others only Spanish, and many are bilingual. Given this diversity, it is not easy to define an identity, belief system and set of values that all Hispanics share. Moreover, this is a population that is changing the way it thinks. Immigrants are a people in motion who are learning about a new land — even as their children are drawing from both their parents’ culture and powerful American influences to shape their attitudes. Research shows that the process of change is widespread and powerful, and that language plays a central role. Latinos who speak only Spanish, almost all of them immigrants, share a set of views on a variety of issues that distinguish them from native-born Americans. Meanwhile, those who speak English express attitudes more similar to those of the U.S. population in general. The evidence shows that English, and the views that come with it, gains ground in the first generation — among the foreign-born — and becomes dominant among their children in the second generation. This report was originally published as a chapter in Trends 2005, a Pew Research Center reference book that examines current developments and long term trends on issues such as politics, religion and public life, the media, the internet, the Hispanic people, the states, and national and global public opinion. For more information on this book, please visit www.pewresearch.org. |