Posted on 08/07/2008 4:28:43 AM PDT by Tennessee Nana
The latest demographic estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau show the Hispanic population in the tri-state region is growing almost 12 times faster than other groups.
According to 2007 population estimates released this morning, the Hispanic population of Hamilton County and the surrounding 20 counties has grown almost 60 percent since 2000, compared to 5 percent growth in non-Hispanic groups.
Gordon and Murray counties in Georgia lead the region, with Hispanic populations surging 131 percent in Murray and 116 percent in Gordon, census figures show. The Hispanic population has grown 86 percent in DeKalb County, Ala., and 80 percent in Georgia’s Catoosa County.
Hamilton County saw its Hispanic population grown 73 percent, figures show, while Bradley County’s grew 72 percent.
The issues of new populations represent “a change that other parts of the country have already experienced and dealt with,” said Mirtha Jones, coordinator of Hispanic outreach and director of Plaza Comunitaria, a partnership between Chattanooga State Technical Community College and the Mexican Consulate in Atlanta that works to educate Hispanic adults.
The census data is based on birth and death certificates as well as surveys and does not make a distinction between legal and illegal immigrants.
Ms. Jones said 85 to 90 percent of the Hispanic students she sees are Mexicans or Guatemalans who have come to the region for jobs in agriculture, construction or with poultry processing plants. Ms. Jones said she also knows of students who are from Uruguay, Colombia, Peru, El Salvador, Honduras and Cuba.
Mexicans and Guatemalans make up the bulk of Hispanic immigrants in the Southeast, with sizable populations of other Central American nations and a relatively small number of South Americans, said Dr. Douglas C. Bachtel, a demographer with the University of Georgia. The immigrants leave their homelands in search of higher wages and more job opportunities, he said.
In addition to the jobs Ms. Jones mentioned, Dr. Bachtel said many immigrants find work in the retail industry as maids or waiters. Dalton, Ga., in particular, has many Hispanic immigrants who work at carpet mills, he said.
“If you don’t have those jobs, you aren’t necessarily going to get Hispanics,” Dr. Bachtel said.
Those jobs are what concern Michael W. Cutler, a former Immigration and Naturalization Service agent and fellow with the Center for Immigration Studies based in Washington, D.C., which explores the effect of immigration on the United States.
Mr. Cutler said immigrants who come into the United States illegally can work for low wages, driving down labor rates for citizens and legal immigrants.
“The difference between an immigrant and an illegal is the difference between a house guest and a burglar,” he said.
“We just need to make a distinction between those who come to this country to contribute and to share the American Dream and those who come to destroy it and create an American nightmare,” he said later.
It is impossible to know how many illegal immigrants there are in the United States, Dr. Bachtel said, but he normally takes the census data and multiplies it by 1.5.
Ms. Jones said she had heard some estimates as high as 15,000 Hispanics in the Chattanooga metro area — about 50 percent more than the Census Bureau’s estimate of nearly 9,600.
School enrollment figures often give a better idea about an area’s population and in Hamilton County shows significant Hispanic growth, as well, Dr. Bachtel said.
In the 2006-2007 school year, 1,757 Hispanic students were enrolled in Hamilton County, making up 4.1 percent of the total student body, school figures show. School administrators estimate the number grew to about 5 percent during the 2007-2008 school year.
Those numbers indicate a sharp growth from the 1999-2000 school year when there were 429 Hispanic students — 1 percent of the total — enrolled in county schools, and even larger growth compared to 1995-1996 statistics, when Hispanics made up 0.6 percent of the system’s students.
Similarly, Erlanger Health System has seen an increasing number of Hispanic patients, officials said. The hospital system admitted 4,168 Hispanic patients between October 2001 and September 2002, compared to 7,302 in the same period of 2006 and 2007, according to Erlanger spokeswoman Pat Charles.
Responding to that trend, Erlanger has introduced bilingual patient guides, patient’s rights forms and elevator signs, as well as adding interpreters to the staff, she said.
Other organizations and institutions are addressing the Hispanic growth as well, according to Ms. Jones.
“Nearly everywhere you go the signs are bilingual,” she said. “It’s more visible than it was five years ago.”
Dr. Bachtel said churches, public safety departments and businesses eventually must take notice of growing Hispanic populations. Law enforcement agencies across the South are recruiting Spanish-speaking officers, and many churches offer Spanish services or ministries, he said.
“It’s pretty hard to take a confessional from someone if you don’t speak their language,” the professor said.
Once an area’s Hispanic population becomes a noticeable percentage of the total, Dr. Bachtel said, businesses that cater specifically to immigrants will open, including restaurants and “mercados,” or markets.
“Foods are one of the first things you miss in a foreign country,” he said. “Entrepreneurs pick up on that.”
* The Hispanic population in Hamilton County has grown 72.8 percent since 2000.
* In 2007, Hispanics made up 2.9 percent of Hamilton County’s population, compared to 1.8 percent in 2000.
* As a whole, Hamilton County has grown 7.4 percent since 2000 to an estimated population of 333,867 residents.
* For the 20-county tri-state region, the total population grew 7.7 percent from 2000 to 2007, while the area’s Hispanic population grew by 59.4 percent.
* Hispanics made up 3.8 percent of the regional population in 2000, compared to 6.0 percent in 2007.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
PING
Thanks for letting me know, I will send ours down there from Illinois.
Oh, that’s OK...
We have our own...
Mighty neighborly of you though...
:)
Rochelle first! Rochelle first! Boy, I can't wait. They're thick around here...
New Rochelle, NY ???????
It’s from the Dalton Georgia area. All the carpet mills and factories had alot of immigrants (alot illegal I’d say) and now they are moving out and around.
Nope, Rochelle, IL. That's why I responded to chicagolady. We're straight West of Chicago on I 88 about 80 miles. Corn & soybean country.
Tennessee: Hispanic growth moves fast in region
Mexico native Belen Reyes made the tough decision to leave her home country at 14 to come to the United States and work.
“I had to drop out of school after sixth grade to help my family,” the 27-year-old said. “So I went to Florida because I had an aunt who lived there and basically encouraged me to go live with her.”
Mrs. Reyes eventually settled in Gordon County, Ga., where she contributed to a 115.8 percent increase in the county’s Hispanic population between 2000 and 2007.
U.S. Census figures released today show Hispanic populations have exploded in much of Southeast Tennessee and North Georgia. The figures were gathered from birth and death certificates and international migration records.
The number of Hispanic residents rose 71.8 percent in Bradley County, Tenn., for the period.
“Diversity is definitely here to stay, the way it is right now in our community and in the United States,” Cleveland Vice Mayor Avery Johnson said. “We are the melting pot. It’s just hard to manage all of that, especially in our school system.”
Immigrants like Mrs. Reyes are attracted to the region by jobs and affordable housing, said Douglas C. Bachtel, a demographer at the University of Georgia.
He said jobs in the carpet industry, agriculture, landscaping and the restaurant industry have attracted Hispanics, documented and undocumented, to the South.
“One of the interesting things about migration is that it occurs in streams. Once it starts it sort of picks up speed and volume over time,” Dr. Bachtel said.
In Cleveland, Mr. Johnson said agriculture and jobs with companies like Whirlpool have attracted a diverse group of people. He said there are at least 62 different cultures in Cleveland alone.
“We have a tremendously diverse community, and it has gotten more and more (diverse) for the past 10 years,” he said.
The new residents have an impact on all kinds of community services. School systems usually lack programs to help children whose parents only speak Spanish, said Roberta Warmack, founder of the nonprofit Latinos for Education and Justice Organization in Calhoun, Ga.
“You can’t expect people to assimilate if they’re not given some kind of information. They need to learn the laws. Somebody needs to keep them informed,” she said.
In Cleveland, Mr. Johnson said it’s hard to manage all the different communities, especially when the individuals are in the country illegally.
“Everything comes down to whether they are legal or illegal,” he said. “It’s hard to provide services and plan when you don’t know where those numbers are going to settle down to.”
http://tfponline.com/news/2008/aug/07/tennessee-hispanic-growth-moves-fast-region/?local
Source:HispanicTips
Check out today's 3 stories - Knowledge is Power! Posted on: September 9th, 2006
Filed Under: [ Hispanic News ]
Tags: Mexican Consulate, Mexico, population
Need some help?
“The Arkansas consulate, Mexico’s 47th in North America, reflects the growing Mexican immigrant population in the South. Little Rock was chosen not because of its own Mexican population, but because it’s a central location for immigrants from throughout the region who need passports, legal aid and other services.
Supporters also say the consulate, would benefit Americans. Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee pushed hard for the consulate to locate in Little Rock, saying it would help area businesses strike international deals.
Memphis is currently in the district of the Mexican consulate in Atlanta, nearly 400 miles away. By contrast, about 140 miles separate Memphis and Little Rock.”
Arkansas consulate employees take their show on the road. The illegals of Tennessee are well represented and empowered by this presence. Thanks Mike! You idiot.
sw
In the Under-5 Set, Minority Becoming the Majority
A surge in Hispanic immigration over the past decade has dramatically altered the racial and ethnic composition of the region’s youngest residents, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures released today.
As with minorities in general, immigrants tend to be younger than non-Hispanic whites and still in their childbearing years. As a result, in five suburban Washington counties, more than half of children age 4 and younger were minorities when the annual Census Bureau survey was taken a year ago.
In three of the counties — Prince William, Montgomery and Charles — the share reached about 60 percent. And in Prince George’s, where Hispanic immigration has supplemented an even larger African American population, more than 90 percent of these children are minorities.
The implications for governments and communities are wide-ranging, demographers said. As the current crop of youngsters reaches kindergarten age, school systems that would otherwise be losing students will continue to grow or remain stable. They will also need to accommodate an ever-larger number of students who were raised in immigrant households where English was not spoken.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/06/AR2008080603683.html?hpid=topnews
COUNTY HISPANIC GROWTH RATES
COUNTY POPULATION % CHANGE
Bledsoe 198 42.2
Bradley 3,220 71.8
Grundy 169 14.2
McMinn 1,259 39.9
Marion 263 28.9
Meigs 130 88.4
Polk 184 54.6
Rhea 711 47.5
Sequatchie 159 71
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
http://tfponline.com/news/2008/aug/07/tennessee-hispanic-growth-moves-fast-region/?local
There's a good solution in place if we just use it. Go after the employers. Fine and jail them. Go after the illegals. Arrest and deport them, or jail them if they've committed a crime. Finish the wall so we can limit to a trickle those who continue to try and sneak in.
Problem solved.
I rode school buses down old country roads in Hamilton County...
..when I was in grade school, the bus driver stopped every morning midway through the route, and his mother would rush out his breakfast to him....while we sat there patiently waiting in the early morning darkness.
...I graduated from high school there....married there...
...but haven't returned in many years...
The memories are still good though.
I'm sorry to see this happen....it was a lovely place.
Tennessee....who would have thought!
The carpet mills in Dalton, Georgia....guess I'm not surprised....sad though.
“The difference between an immigrant and an illegal is the difference between a house guest and a burglar,” he said.
yep
Sheriff Joe Arpaio radio interview TODAY in Chicago
He will be on the Jerry Agar show
www.wlsam.com Listen live!!
Between 9am and 11 am Chicago time!
AMERICA’S TOUGHEST SHERIFF IS COMING TO CHICAGO NEXT WEEK!!
CHECK OUT www.illinoiscitizens.com
I suggest they use the Oklahoma laws as a template for their own.
“We have our own...”
Nana, would you believe that in my small rural town in Indiana, population less than 7000, we have a serious illegal problem?
This is NOT a rich area. The jobs that these people are doing are directly competing with Americans trying to put food on the table for their families.
Around here, Americans make a living doing the “jobs Americans won’t do”.
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