Posted on 11/28/2004 5:49:24 PM PST by Constitution Day
Report: Immigrant population in N.C. nearly doubled in four years
The Associated Press
November 26, 2004 12:20 am
RALEIGH, N.C. -- North Carolina's foreign-born population has nearly doubled in the past four years, with immigrants undeterred by the struggling economy, according to a report based on a U.S. Census Bureau survey.
The report by the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors tougher restrictions on immigration, found that the state's foreign-born population jumped from 373,000 in 2000 to 641,000 in March.
"Immigration is a complex process that's driven by a lot of different things," said study author Steven A. Camarota, research director at the Washington-based center. "The argument that it's driven by the economy is weak."
The report was based on the census bureau's March Current Population Survey, which is taken every year to gauge the country's unemployment rate.
The census bureau does not use that survey to estimate annual changes in immigrant population. It relies on the much larger, annual American Community Survey, which showed that North Carolina's foreign-born population grew to 502,000 from 2000 to 2003, the most recent year for which figures are available.
Kevin Deardorff, chief of the bureau's immigration statistics staff, warned against viewing the numbers reported by the Center for Immigration Studies as proven.
"To take them as absolute estimates is probably something that one should do with caution," he said. "But it wouldn't surprise me if you saw continued growth."
The report doesn't show where immigrants came from, but the 2000 census found that 40 percent of North Carolina's immigrants came from Mexico. The next-largest groups were from India, Germany and Canada.
Mexico remained the top country of origin for North Carolina immigrants after 2000, according to experts who attributed the continued growth to word-of-mouth.
"Part of what's going on is the cumulative effect of immigration in the 1990s," said Roland Stephen, an associate professor of political science at N.C. State University. "Friends and relatives heard from others who came before them that life is pretty good here."
Signs of the immigrant boom can be seen across the state. The number of students taking English as a Second Language classes at the state's 58 community colleges rose from 29,000 in the 2002-03 academic year to 37,000 the following year. The ranks of Hispanic soccer leagues are swelling, and cricket -- once nearly unheard of in North Carolina -- is being played on recreational fields throughout the state by Indians and Pakistanis.
Veerapandian Kalimuthu, owner of Tower Indian Restaurant, said he has had to expand his staff of waiters and cooks from three to seven since opening in Morrisville in April 2002. Roughly two-thirds of his customers are, like Kalimuthu, from India.
"On Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, we're packed," he said.
But more often, it appears that immigrants are struggling in North Carolina, Camarota said.
The center's study found that 42 percent of North Carolina's immigrant population lacks a high school diploma, compared with 17 percent of the native population. Also, 59 percent of immigrants and their children live in or near poverty, the study found.
A primary is a much better forum for party soul-searching than a general election.
Also, Kerry wasn't smart enough to figure out that this was an issue. I wouldn't similarly underestimate Hillary.
LOL.
Been to Duplin or Sampson Counties lately?
The Hispanic population in our NC mountain county is gradually increasing every year. We have 2 ESL teachers in a school of 625 students with a 20-25% Hispanic population. They are constantly pulled from classes because there are non English speaking parents raising hell at the front office. No one at the front office speaks Spanish of course. The children are learning English as fast as they can, I have 5 Hispanic children in my class who are totally bilingual. I can't have a parent conference with any of their parents without an interpretor though because their parents don't speak a lick of English. I've checked these kid's records. They have been in the United States since before they started kindergarten (at least 6 years) and their parents STILL don't speak English. Give me a break already. If you're staying, learn the damn language.
Exporting jobs-importing those to whom we are exporting the jobs. Duh....is it possible that the jobs are passing those for whom the jobs were intended, enroute?
What we have here is a failure in coordination.
So people are complaining about the rise in illegal immigration in the Tarheel State. Could that be attributed to Mike Easley's signing of a law allowing illegals to obtain driver's licenses? If illegal imigration is such a problem, then why did voters give Easley another four years to wreak the state?
that's why when people post that "Hillary has no chance in 2008" - they need to look closer at demographics, especially when Richardson is on the ticket.
I am assuming your wife is literate, speaks English, and has a high school education.
I DO care who is coming into this county. We have enough slackers who do not want to learn the language and assimilate.
not at all. free trade with China killed the original intent of NAFTA - to provide Mexico, a country with which we share a border and a migration issue, a chance to have economic development and build a jobs base. NAFTA made sense in that respect. But you can't have NAFTA, and then have free trade with China. Because the investment in plants that should have been built in Mexico, went to China instead (lower wages).
so what's left? well, the US globalists now see Mexico as the source for low cost labor for US service jobs. but to fill those service positions, requires the presence of the worker here in the US, hence the immigration issue.
It's kind of embarrassing to admit before the whole damn world, but a large majority of North Carolineans are unabashed masochists, and they reelected Easley because they enjoy the pain and humiliation his administration inflicts upon the citizens of this state.
Our dirty, ugly little secret is exposed before the entire world now-I hope you are satisfied.
Hispanic and Asian. It's an epidemic.
Yes, she does, and of course I would like all those qualities in other immigrants.
Please note that I did include the word 'assimilate' in my post.
By that, I partly meant "learn to speak English".
The problem is you don't find those qualities in most of the immigrants coming to NC. They don't speak English, they don't have medical insurance, and they're costing the rest of us a lot. God forbid you or a family member have a medical emergency. The ERs are loaded with non-paying patients. You and I will be picking up their bill.
Peon wages are equal to or lower than wages paid to coolies. Therefore, if jobs are going to China because the wages are lower than in Mexico, it has less to do with the wages earned by the working class in Mexico, than the rip offs, pay offs and kickbacks, collected by bureaucratic thugs, between production and shipment of a product.
I'm still unwilling to buy that politically correct lie that we must import people to do certain service jobs, because American's would rather starve to death than do them. That dog just doesn't hunt.
I live in eastern North Carolina. You think I don't know these things?
My dad broke his foot on Friday and went to the ER, where he had to encounter just such a crowd of the non-paying.
Ridiculous!
For the life of me I do not understand why we are allowing this illegal problem to continue.
The local residents are so lazy that they won't do the work the Mexicans do.
The ONLY upside is that in our sleepy little town in the mountains, we have a KILLER Mexican restaurant...(yum)!
Ok, nobody in your front office can speak Spanish and the parents haven't learned English. ¿Es usted familiar con las investigaciónes lingüística? Aprender una segunda lengua después de la adolescencia es extremadamente difícil para razones neuro-lingüística y biochemica. Sé -- tuve que aprender español cuando hacia 40 años. ¿En su escula, que culpa? -- los parientes o los administadores.
But the economy is booming, not slowing. Thanks in part to immigrant labor.
tell the US small business owners, not me - they are the ones asserting their "right" to low cost labor - restaurants, small hotels, construction and home remodelers, cleaning services, gardening and domestic help. these are the jobs the illegals are filing, this is who is hiring them.
mexico is corrupt, yes. and china is some kind of jeffersonian utopia?
President Bush isn't granting amnesty to anyone nor rewarding anyone for anything.
He is proposing a guest worker program under which foreign workers can apply for permits to work in the U.S.
No one gets to go to the front of the line. No one gets preferential treatment. No one is exempt from meeting the requirements.
Don't believe everything you read on the white supremacists websites.
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