Latino Immigrants, New Communities in the Southeast

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Latino Immigrants, New Communities in the
Southeast
Consortium for Latino Immigration Studies
University of South Carolina
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THE SOUTHEASTS LATINO POPULATION BOOM

• The Hispanic/Latino population of the Southeast
  increased by well over 400 percent in the decade
  of the 1990s.
• Most Latinos in the South are foreign born (57).
  
• Most Latino immigrants are young (median age 27)
  males (63 in 2000).
• Most (62) have less than 12 years of education.
• Most Latinos in the region are members of the
  working class.
• 57 do not speak English well or do not speak it
  at all.
• Over half of the Souths Latinos arrived between
  1995 and 2000, and most lack legal status (over 8
  million in the US in 2005).
• The number of Hispanic youth (ages 5-17)
  increased by 322 between 1990 and 2000, while
  white youth numbers grew by 10 and African
  American youths by 18.
• (Source Pew Hispanic Center, The New Latino
  South, 2005)

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LATINO IMMIGRANTS TO THE SOUTH

• Census data far underreports Latino numbers
• Most new immigrants arrive from Mexico and
  Central America (roughly 80)
• Most Mexican immigrants are from new sending
  areas in Mexico
• Women and children are arriving in larger numbers

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CRITICAL HOUSING ISSUES

• Latinos in the Southeast tend to live in the
  worst of housing stock
• Many live in overcrowded and/or unhealthy/unsafe
  housing
• Discrimination is rampant. Examples include
• Refusal to rent or sell to Latinos
• Charging undocumented immigrants higher rent than
  those with documentation
• Threatening to report undocumented renters
  if/when they complain about health/safety issues
  in rental housing
• Most live great distances from their place of
  work

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LATINO HOMEOWNER RATES LAG
AHS 2003 data
Source A Roof Over Our Heads, Notre Dame, 2005.
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BARRIERS TO LATINO HOMEOWNERSHIP

• Latinos lack of credit history/lack of banking
  connections
• For many, insufficient down payment
• Latinos poor understanding of home buying
  processes
• Predatory lenders
• Lack of documentation and/or lack of institutions
  willing to make loans to undocumented residents
• Scarcity of Latino-devoted community development
  corporations (CDCs)

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LATINO HOMEOWNERSHIP

• But homeownership for immigrants is increasing
  in Atlanta during the 1990s, homeownership
  increased among
• Hispanics 258 percent
• Asians 241 percent
• African Americans 97 percent
• whites 38 percent

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WHY LATINO HOME OWNERSHIP?

• Home ownership is key to building
  inter-generational wealth, building credit
  histories, community pride, promoting dignity,
  and in general, increasing social capital.
  (Yzaguirre, National Council of La Raza)
• Better housing options can improve Latinos
  incorporation into other areas of American life
  (Atiles and Bohon)
• The purchase of affordable homes by the currently
  undocumented Latinos who rent would translate
  into 44 billion in mortgage originations.

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UNDOCUMENTED LATINO HOMEOWNERSHIP

• Some lenders, encouraged by the FDIC, will accept
  Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers issued
  by the IRS as a form of identification.
• The IRS began to issue ITINs in 1997 to
  immigrants ineligible for a Social Security
  number in order to encourage filing tax returns.
  By late 2004 the IRS had issued over 8 million
  ITINs
• U.S. Treasury Department rules do not require
  financial institutions to check the immigration
  status of their customers.
• Customers must provide an official U.S. or
  foreign government-issued picture ID and a tax
  identification or Social Security number that can
  be checked against a federal terrorism and
  money-laundering watch list.
• Mortgages The mortgage agencies Freddie Mac,
  Fannie Mae and Ginnie Mae do not purchase
  mortgages taken out by the undocumented.

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SECOND GENERATION LATINO HOUSING
Source State of the Nations Housing 2005, Joint
Center for Housing Studies, Harvard University
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TRANSPORTATION ISSUES

• Automobiles
• Few in the SE have valid drivers license
• Purchasing autos can prove difficult
• Public Transportation
• Few areas have adequate public transportation
• Few transportation companies provide information
  in Spanish

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COMMUNITY RELATIONS

• Inter-ethnic relations
• Over half of Mexican immigrants in SC study
  report some form of discrimination
• Across the region African Americans and Latinos
  compete over jobs, housing, social services
• Latino high-school kids in Toombs County and from
  across east-central Georgia held their own prom
  (alongside a white prom and a Black prom) in
  2004
• In North Charleston, SC, Latinos accounted for 34
  percent of the city's 411 robbery victims in
  2004 Black on Latino crime rates have risen
  across the region
• Hot button issues for whites, African
  Americans legal status of immigrants, language
  barrier

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TRANSNATIONALISM

• Communication 95 of Mexican immigrants call
  Mexico at least bi-weekly
• Remittances 75 of Mexican immigrants send funds
  back to family members
• Travel holiday, recuperative, seasonal
• Cultural implications

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ADDITIONAL STORY IDEAS

• How is Latino immigration affecting southern
  culture?
• How are community leaders responding to the rapid
  influx of Latino residents?
• What role do churches play in Latino immigrant
  settlement?
• Will the Southeasts unique history and culture
  affect immigrant incorporation in the region?
• How will the lack of multi-generational ethnic
  communities (such as those in Texas, California,
  New York, Illinois, and Florida) affect immigrant
  incorporation?
• Most of our immigrants are Mexican, and most come
  from new sending areas in Mexico. What are the
  implications of this trend?
• How did Katrina affect Latino migrants? (Issues
  of communication, new settlement areas, abuses
  during reconstruction)

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RESOURCES
Immigration Bedevils State Lawmakers.
Stateline.org, Sept 2005. Available at
http//www.stateline.org/live/ViewPage.action?site
NodeId136languageId1contentId51980 Odem
and Lacy, Mexican Immigration to the Southeast
Impacts and Challenges. Instituto Mexicano,
2005. State of the Nations Housing. Harvard
University, Joint Center for Housing Studies,
2005. Available at http//www.jchs.harvard.edu/
The New Latino South The Context and
Consequences of Rapid Population Growth. Pew
Hispanic Center, 2005. Available at
http//pewhispanic.org/files/reports/50.pdf The
Roof Over Our Heads Hispanic Housing in the
United States. Institute for Latino Studies,
University of Notre Dame, 2005. Available at
http//nd.edu/latino/research/documents/AHS_FINAL
_report.pdf