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Census shows white flight in Bibb, boom in Georgia's Hispanic population
From staff and wire reports

During the past two years, more white people have left Bibb County than any other county in the state. And more blacks have moved to Bibb than to any other Middle Georgia county, according to the latest census estimates.

While the U.S. Census Bureau computes hard numbers once a decade, each year the bureau also estimates population growth. The 2003 report, released today, includes the first county population estimates by age, sex, race and Hispanic origin since the 2000 census.

Bibb County's total population grew by 937 people to 154,824, according to estimates. That includes a loss of 1,085 whites and a gain of 2,762 blacks and 41 Hispanics.

The new figures show that Hispanic immigrants have flooded to the South since 2000, many of them attracted by the growing region's surplus of low-paying jobs.

Hispanic populations have grown around the country, but fastest in the South, with Georgia leading the nation with 16.8 percent growth from 2000 to 2002, according to estimates.

Of the 10 states with the highest influx of Hispanics, six of them were in the South: Georgia, North Carolina, Kentucky, South Carolina, Virginia and Alabama.

In Middle Georgia, the largest number of Hispanics moved into Toombs County, which has an estimated 2,448 Hispanics - up 138 from two years ago. Toombs also has the third-largest Hispanic population in Middle Georgia, behind Houston's 3,319 and Bibb's 2,064.

The largest percentage increase in Middle Georgia Hispanic populations was in Bleckley County, where the Hispanic population grew 42.06 percent. The largest decline was in Jones, which dropped by 27.81 percent.

Hispanics were drawn to the South because it needed workers for manual labor in industries such as agriculture, construction, textiles and janitorial work, said Charles Gallagher, a sociology professor at Georgia State University.

"A toilet doesn't get flushed in a hotel, an onion doesn't get cut in a restaurant and a frame doesn't get built on a house without Latino labor," he said.

Following Georgia, Washington, D.C., had the second-highest Hispanic growth, at 16 percent. There were 15.7 percent more Hispanics in North Carolina, 15 percent more in Nevada and 13.9 percent more in Kentucky.

The migration of Hispanics from Latin America to the United States follows a pattern set by many other immigrant groups - spurred by poverty, they seek a new life and better wages in America, Gallagher said.

While Hispanics may make $6 or $7 an hour in labor-intense jobs in the United States, the American dream of social mobility may be out of reach for many of them, he said. That's because the higher-paying work requiring more education is already filled to capacity.

"This is as good as it gets for them," Gallagher said. "It's hard work, it's dangerous work, it's repetitious work. Folks who have been in the U.S. for a few generations, they won't work these jobs."

Longtime Georgia residents said Wednesday it was easy to see the increasing number of Hispanics in the state.

"How couldn't you notice?" asked Pauline Jenkins, as she waited at a bus stop in downtown Atlanta. "They've got a right to be here. Treat everybody fair, that's all I'm saying."

But William Worley worried that Hispanics would take over more blue-collar jobs.

"They'll work cheaper than the average American," said Worley, as he sat on a bench in Centennial Olympic Park. "I don't have anything against the Mexicans or Hispanics, but they make it harder for the rest of us to get jobs."