Posted on 07/05/2017 8:21:02 AM PDT by Taxman
Influxes of African, Asian, and Latino Americans helped Houston's metro area avoid economic stagnation. Could an expected demographic shift on the national level end up reviving other troubled cities?
Houston is a window into the future of America. In 1970, the city was an oil town that was about one-quarter black and three-quarters white, with just a smattering of folks of other origins. Since the oil-price bust of 1982, however, growth in the city and metropolitan area has come almost entirely from influxes of African, Asian, and especially Latino Americans. These new Houstonians came to work in construction and service, and as professionals in the expanding Texas Medical Center. During the same period, the white population, much of which had originally come to the region for oil jobs, hardly grew at all.
The result? What was once a "biracial Southern city," as Rice University sociologist Stephen Klineberg put it, is now one of America’s most diverse metropolitan areas. In fact, by one measure of diversity—how evenly distributed the population is between blacks, whites, Latinos, and Asians—it beats out New York and Los Angeles. By 2060, the Census Bureau predicts the country will follow, roughly, in Houston's footsteps, with no single race claiming a majority of the population.
What have these demographic shifts meant for Houston, and what will they do to the country? As the city's demographic make-up shifted, so did its attitudes. Houstonians became slightly more likely to be Democrats, and slightly less likely to be Republicans. With every passing year, their support for immigrants, including the undocumented, grows. There were tensions initially because some longtime residents worried that the new immigrants wouldn't assimilate, says Klineberg, who has lived in the city for 45 years and surveyed its residents regularly since 1982. But as a generation of United States-born children grew up, he saw those worries fade. "It's very hard to summon up fears of perfect-English-speaking people," he says. "We are falling in love with each other, marrying, making multiracial babies, in a way that transforms the whole experience." It helped that Houston had plenty of land to develop, so many residents didn't see the racial composition of their neighborhoods change drastically: Some research has shown that these types of shifts can make people less willing to pay taxes for public goods, such as infrastructure and schools.
Klineberg thinks the city's newest residents helped it survive in the wake of the oil bust, during which more than 225,000 people lost their jobs and hundreds of Texas banks failed. Although some research indicates that diversity can reduce community trust and engagement, some economists think that ethnic diversity in cities helps make them more productive, perhaps because workers of different backgrounds have disparate ideas and skills. At least in classrooms, diversity has been shown to promote more innovative thinking. Other studies show cities with significant numbers of foreign-born residents tend to grow faster than cities without them, and to support higher average wages for native-born residents (although some people may take a pay cut). There's even evidence that, in some cases, immigrants can help revive cities on the decline.
"If Houston had not become a magnet for the new urban growth of the last 30 years, Houston would have lost population, would have had the same fate as other major American cities that are losing their statuses as major cities because they've basically stopped growing for 35 years: Philadelphia, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Detroit," Klineberg says. "No city has benefited from immigration more than Houston, Texas."
So far as I am aware, there is no, and never has been, a "successful" multi-racial society!
Furthermore, I thought we were "post-racial?"
Here is my take: I do not believe that America is or will be better off because of "diversity." Keep in mind that the very people who promote this "diversity" insanity do no have to suffer ANY of the consequences of their actions. They very effectively isolate themselves (gated communities, wealth, private security services, etc., etc.) FRom the downsides of diversity (and, the downsides are considerable!) and will pay NO price for them.
Until the Shit Hits the Fan, of course! Then, they will insist that Real Americans bail their sorry asses out; what if we refuse and add them to our "diversity" target list?
We sure do live in interesting times, don't we?
Addendum: If we are, indeed, “post-racial,” why do we have our panties in such a tight twist about race?
Of cities. Then those of us in the rural areas wall them off so they don't get out!
It’s about character, not race.
The idea that diversity in and of itself is a strength
is pure folly.
Houston does pretty well with it. I would say that it’s natural that the “immigrant” sentiment grows as the number of “immigrants” grows. Remove taco, remove kebab, and things would improve, and that “sentiment” diminish.
I fully agree!
Can we say, all together, “. . .content of character?”
That, my FRiend, will be hard to do. Not impossible, just hard to do. I wish you well!
Bingo. Diversity didn't do such a hot job in Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, or Baltimore.
Shared language, culture, and values makes a strong society. Japan is strong because they don't go along with this nonsense. Same with eastern Europe, Russia.
Look what happened to the tidy and industrious countries of Scandinavia. They thought it would be "cool" and "liberal" to be "diverse". Now those countries are an unsafe open sewer of putrefying "diversity".
It helps that Houston cops shoot to kill. When everyone understands the rules, things stay pretty calm.
Is the crime rate diverse too?
How about we just remove the illegal immigrants?
Are you sure that isn’t a typo? Shouldn’t the source be “BS”?
Houston isn’t just an oil town. It’s a refinery town. It’s a port city. It has NASA. It has tourists. It has big business. And has always had these other industries to keep it afloat if one has a bad year.
Houston is also uber liberal these days. They vote straight demonrat no matter who in the race. What an embarrassment Sheila Jackson Lee has been to the city but they keep voting for her time and time again. Heck, a couple years a white guy decided to run for the college board and claimed he was endorsed by a black guy. The white guy never campaigned and no one bothered to check him out. He won because the ignorant blacks thought he was one of them.
You couldn’t pay me enough to live there.
My mom is in a nursing home, and whereas all of the residents are white, virtually all of the staff - except management, physical therapists, and the plant maintenance staff - are minorities and recent immigrants.
Houston has always been a place to avoid if possible. I mean always. This is just another reason why.
To me, “Diversity” is just a code-word...used to promote chaos and civil unrest. Then the globalist ‘authorities’ will need to move in to restore order...
“the very people who promote this “diversity” insanity do no have to suffer ANY of the consequences of their actions. They very effectively isolate themselves (gated communities, wealth, private security services, etc., etc.) FRom the downsides of diversity (and, the downsides are considerable!) and will pay NO price for them.”
...and Right on!
I also understand that a number of immigrant groups in Houston (Vietnamese, Indian, Nigerian) seek upward mobility and are more educated/productive than the norm. Not the same as the illegal Somali problems they have in Minnesota.
Houston has an unbelievable number of homeless and the crime rate is high. Hurricane Katrina victims that escaped to Houston are also still there and need to go back to Louisiana.
“Remove taco, remove kebab,”
Hearing that expression more & more, lately. “Remove kebab” originated in the 1990’s among Serbs & other non-muslims in the Balkans. “Remove taco” is more recent.
“Influxes of African, Asian, and Latino Americans helped Houston’s metro area avoid economic stagnation”.
PURE BS. Huge welfare drain. Massive crime. Debt. Sick property tax rates to pay for (part of) it. Burka’s EVERYWHERE. Crappy ethic enclaves everywhere with no English. We are half way to some dystopian sci-fi flick (think Blade Runner). Are all of them bad? Of course not. But this is not a future you want.
Houston functions IN SPITE of this mess only because Texas is not fully libtard / regressive yet.
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