Posted on 04/22/2008 7:44:40 PM PDT by PotatoHeadMick
Los Angeles is becoming a "Third World city" with immigrants making up half its workforce, says a new study.
A third of immigrants have not graduated from high school and 60 per cent do not speak English fluently, the Migration Policy Institute found.
It said this left immigrants ill-equipped to fill California's fastest-growing occupations, such as computer software engineering and nursing. The organisation added that as the so-called baby boomers reach retirement age, a similar pattern will spread across the US.
Ernesto Cortes Jr, of the Industrial Areas Foundation, a think-tank that specialises on social change, claimed Los Angeles was at a crossroads.
"The question is are we going to be a 21st century city with shared prosperity, or a Third World city with an elite group on top and most on near poverty wages?" he said.
What seems to be lost in the translation is the culture the immigrants bring with them and the attitude they have toward integration within the existing culture to which they've entered.
There are two attitudes here. Immigrants who wish to be 'Americans' and integrate themselves into the American culture and immigrants who are only here for the money.
Your Czech friend wanted to become an American, so he learned English and became a citizen. The Mexican illegal aliens do not wish to become Americans and thus, do not learn the language, or only learn enough to get by and make no attempt to become citizens. They make no attempt to integrate into American society as citizens and instead, bring their cultural 'heritage' here with them.
Lastly, you didn't answer my quetion. You mentioned that change is inevitable. So, once again, I ask; Has the influx of large numbers of Mexican illegal aliens changed L.A. for better or for worse?
LA is a big city and has many districts. But I believe the article is correct in the general sense of the trend.
You have tried to turn this thread into a discussion on comparative crime rates, which is not the subject of the UK Daily Telegraph article. Instead, the real subject is that "Los Angeles is becoming a "Third World city" with immigrants making up half its workforce, says a new study. A third of immigrants have not graduated from high school and 60 per cent do not speak English fluently, the Migration Policy Institute found.
I sent you the following link, L.A. Gangs: Nine Miles and Spreading that provides a lengthy exposition of the racially linked gang wars that are spreading within LA between blacks and Mexicans. The changing demographics of the city are causing friction and conflict. Based on your comments, you didn't take the time to read the article. You would rather bloviate about comparative crime statistics rather than address what is going on in LA.
A war implies killing etc. You realize murder is a crime right?
From the article: The Bounty HunterGrape Street murders over that Christmas season were among the 273 gang-related homicides in Los Angeles last year. Gang-related killings have dropped to 187 so far this year. While its easy to see the ebb and flow in killings as just chapters in L.A.s infamous gang wars, gang experts, police and even gang members themselves say that the truth is that something ominous is happening. Gang crime in South Los Angeles spiked 24 percent in 2006, 14 percent in the city overall and more than 60 percent in the San Fernando Valley.
"Nationwide, juvenile gang homicides have spiked 23 percent since 2000. There are six times as many gangs in L.A. as there were a quarter century ago, and twice as many gang members. But as important as the gang activity itself is whats different about the violence. In Americas urban ganglands, and in L.A. in particular, the ferocity of the thuggery has surged; gang members, their victims and police long on the gang beat tell me the fighting has become more codeless, more arbitrary and more brutal than ever."
Los Angeles is the epicenter of the nations gang crisis, and an effective assault on gang crime will require increased suppression, intervention and prevention measures, Villaraigosa said after Rices report was released. Street gangs are responsible for the majority of all the murders in Los Angeles and nearly 70 percent of all the shootings. We must work to address gang violence in a truly comprehensive way.
"The problem is that for the most part traditional (and failed) models of gangs and gang suppression do not apply, because not only are gangs better armed and more ferocious, but they look different. The accelerating current of gang violence is colliding with a growing wave of Hispanic migration from Mexico and Central America into the United States. Hispanic gangs now dominate the hardcore narcotics business nationwide, and they are physically pushing historically entrenched black gangs out of their territories."
FYI: Here in Northern Virginia we have one of the major concentrations of MS-13. It is becoming more and more of a problem, both in terms of violence and drugs. One last time, if there is a racial war in LA, Cal, why is it that almost ever single major city outside of California has higher per capita violent crime than Los Angeles?
My cousin and his wife moved out of the city down to Orange County, back in the day when it was as white as you could get in CA, the perfect suburbia.
Now, and increasingly for the past two decades, they have experienced a HUGE influx of Asians -— mostly Vietnamese -— and Asian gangs who are extremely violent.
It is naive, at best, for you to say that whites and Asians do not commit crimes.
In my opinion, the white liberals around here are a criminal element, not only in their anti-Americanism but in their hypocrisy. While planting Obama signs in their yards and windows, they live as elitists. It is these people who are employing the illegals to take care of their yards, clean their toilets and mind their children. They could do all of these things for themselves, but prefer to be “masters” of the new slave class.
Trying to blame anything all on one race or one skin color is a lost cause.
I answered your question.
I saw sweeping generalizations and a very brief history lesson, but other than your worry about Moslems, I did not see any conclusion about whether L.A. has been made better or worse by the influx of Mexican illegal aliens who do not want to integrate into American society.
Perhaps you should have couched your answer in simpler terms for a simple man, like myself.
There, fixed it.
(Yes, there are high crime 'hoods and barrios in almost every American city today. Take them out, and you have crime like Norway or Saskatchewan.)
Because LA's millions are spread out over an area the size of some Eastern states. Inside of Greater LA are several Richmond Virginia sized cities-within a city that are 100% 3rd world, with amazing crime rates, and yes, race war, where blacks are shot on sight by invading latinos.
False argument. Apples and oranges. Racial murder by gang order is not the same as embezzlement, for example, even if both are crimes. Remove the minorities from American crime stats, and we are on a par with Norway.
Per capita statics do not go by size. They are calculated per 100,000 people. It's the only accurate way to do it.
For example, in Indianapolis Indiana, for every 100,000 people there are 17.5 murders. In LA, Cal for every 100,000 people there are only 12.4 murders. That is a significant difference.
Inside of Greater LA are several Richmond Virginia sized cities-within a city that are 100% 3rd world, with amazing crime rates, and yes, race war, where blacks are shot on sight by invading latinos.
Again, I am referring to the City of Los Angeles. The size of the city boundary is not the issue. Per capita is calculated by per 100,000 within specific city limits.
The term "Greater" Los Angeles means little. Los Angeles City limits are clearly defined on the map, like all other cities.
If there is a racial war in LA, Cal, why is it that almost ever single major city outside of California has higher per capita *violent* crime than Los Angeles?
If there is a race war going on, would that not reflect on the crime stats?
Answer, of course it would.
So does Tijuana, that doesn't mean it's still not rapidly becoming a 3rd world crap hole, which it is.
LOL. You are an idiot.
The unfortunate fact is, most of America is going that way. You can't flood any country with 40,000,000 illegal aliens from 3rd world environments, and not expect the entire country to follow the trend.
Just the way it is. You can thank you're federal government. The fist rots from the head.
After you declined to answer the question 3 times, I am not really too surprised.
Awesome post WD.......makes me want too post my good and bad locations over my career as well.........:o)
Stay safe Sir , Hope yer well !
Believe me, it’s accurate. LA is lost forever. It is a Third World City and sinking daily into the mire.
I could not agree more. What is interesting however, is many continue to cling to the idea that this is somehow restricted or isolated to the southwest. I've traveled all over the this country in the past 7 years or so, and there is no question, it's all going the same way.
Maybe others just refuse to see, that this government sponsored invasion of tens of millions left the southwest region, spreading to all points many years ago, and continues to this day.
Maybe it makes them feel better to ignore the obvious.
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