The Not So Sunny Side of Hispanic Immigration
It is rare to hear honest assessments from mainstream journalists or researchers regarding the problems ahead if the US continues to allow millions of impoverished, uneducated Hispanics to move here. Heather MacDonald is one of the few voices that you will hear and fortunately she also happens to write really well. So what is coming our way? Heather gives you an idea:
Unless the life chances of children raised by single mothers suddenly improve, the explosive growth of the U.S. Hispanic population over the next couple of decades does not bode well for American social stability. Hispanic immigrants bring near–Third World levels of fertility to America, coupled with what were once thought to be First World levels of illegitimacy. (In fact, family breakdown is higher in many Hispanic countries than here.) Nearly half of the children born to Hispanic mothers in the U.S. are born out of wedlock, a proportion that has been increasing rapidly with no signs of slowing down. Given what psychologists and sociologists now know about the much higher likelihood of social pathology among those who grow up in single-mother households, the Hispanic baby boom is certain to produce more juvenile delinquents, more school failure, more welfare use, and more teen pregnancy in the future.
… The dimensions of the Hispanic baby boom are startling. The Hispanic birthrate is twice as high as that of the rest of the American population. That high fertility rate—even more than unbounded levels of immigration—will fuel the rapid Hispanic population boom in the coming decades. By 2050, the Latino population will have tripled, the Census Bureau projects. One in four Americans will be Hispanic by mid-century, twice the current ratio. In states such as California and Texas, Hispanics will be in the clear majority. Nationally, whites will drop from near 70 percent of the total population in 2000 to just half by 2050. Hispanics will account for 46 percent of the nation’s added population over the next two decades, the Pew Hispanic Center reports.
… But it’s the fertility surge among unwed Hispanics that should worry policymakers. Hispanic women have the highest unmarried birthrate in the country—over three times that of whites and Asians, and nearly one and a half times that of black women, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
… Conservatives who support open borders are fond of invoking “Hispanic family values” as a benefit of unlimited Hispanic immigration. Marriage is clearly no longer one of those family values. But other kinds of traditional Hispanic values have survived—not all of them necessarily ideal in a modern economy, however. One of them is the importance of having children early and often. “It’s considered almost a badge of honor for a young girl to have a baby,” says Peggy Schulze of Chrysalis House, an adoption agency in Fresno.
Scary too, wait until single-parent Hispanic families as a group get fully engaged with our anti-poverty welfare system. The system, when combined with poor and unstable Hispanic families, will methodically create a new underclass - and it will very likely be much more widespread than the black underclass. So be prepared for much more crime and many more areas that you (and your kids and grandkids) must be careful to avoid driving through.
According to common notions of the anti-poverty welfare system, there is no connection between the growth of underclasses and welfare. In fact, John Edwards says that if we just spend $20 billion more per year we can end poverty in the US! Too bad the real world is not so simple.
November 22nd, 2006 at 10:33 pm
It is more than that. Today, many in the black community still harbor a sympathic atitute towards the hispanic immigrants. But this sentiment will change as more an dmore hispanic start taking jobs that were once dominated by blacks. The consequence of a large Mexican migration to this country would be literally explosive. The interesting thing is that what will the democrats do when this conflict of interest becomes a major issue few years from now. They will have to make a choice, they can’t have both the black and hispanic votes on this issue.
If this country truly cared about raising the standard of living for all, they need to stop pouring cold war into the pot. This country needs time to integrate the people who are already here.
November 22nd, 2006 at 11:40 pm
nobody,
I wrote some about the conflicts between blacks and Hispanics:
http://nospeedbumps.com/?p=590
Regardless of the conflicts, I think Democrats will win both group’s votes for years to come. Groups with lower average incomes vote for the more socialist leaning party because they promise to use the state to give them more aid.
November 23rd, 2006 at 1:14 am
IF WE LET 11 MILLION STAY WE WILL BECOME THIRD WORLD! THESE PEOPLE THAT COME FROM MEXICO WILL NEVER ASSIMILATE NEVER !THEY ARE VERY PATRIOTIC THE ONLY REASON THEY COME IS TO SEND MONEY BACK HOME. 11 MILLION WILL BECOME TRIPPLE BECAUSE THE FIRST THING THEY DO IS BRING THEIR AGING PARENTS WHO WILL BE A BURDEN TO US! THESE PEOPLE WILL DECLARE WAR ON US IN THE COMING YEARS BECAUSE THEY REALLY FEEL THEY BELONG HERE. THEY ARE NOT LEAVING ANY TIME SOON! WE DO NOT WANT GUEST WORKER PROGRAMS NOR DO WE WANT AMNESTY!
DO YOU THINK THEY LOVE USA . NO THEY HATE US AND ARE VERY ENVIOUS OF US, I FEEL DISCRIMINATED BY THEM! THEY WILL NEVER LEAVE, YOU WOULD HAVE TO PUT A GUN TO THEIR HEADS FIRST.
November 25th, 2006 at 2:42 am
Hello everyone, I happen to come across this blog while searching and I must say that everyone sounds pretty upset about the hispanics.
I agree that there are many issues with immigration but I have to ask:
Do you really think the U.S. Goverment is going to deport illegal aliens and disrupt the economic power of 11 million people and turn away that many potential taxpayers??”
November 25th, 2006 at 10:06 am
jrzy,
As job opportunities for illegal workers dry up they will be begin leaving on their own. They will self-deport. We don’t need police raids all around the country to find illegal immigrants.
As far as the economic impact, I don’t think the impact will be very large since this will be a slow process of jobs going away and people returning to their home countries, I don’t expect any big economic issues. In fact, many schools and hospitals will now be able to pay their bills more easily.
November 25th, 2006 at 6:19 pm
I’m sorry Dan but I must disagree. Unless something catastrophic happens to this country , the U.S. will always be in demand and people will come whether the public wants them to or not. I believe that 11 million illegal aliens should be contributing to this economy legally not illegally. That amount of people translates to taypayer dollars that can go towards schools, roads, etc. They are already here and should be given an oppourtunity to demonstate their potential and contribute to our society. Those that violate this oppourtunity should be dealt with accordingly.
For those that say immigrants are a burden to our public assistance programs, you forget to mention that there are alot of able body legal citizens that have been milking that cow for years, generations have lived off tax payer supported public assistance programs , that is exactly why we must stop this ignorant way of thinking and implement mandated education into these programs so that people can stop being supported and support themselves.
We can go on and on about this subject… I for one, hope we can come to an agreement that will be beneficial for both sides of this debate.
November 25th, 2006 at 6:59 pm
jrzy,
There are a lot of hard-working Hispanics in the US, that are here illegally, that I sympathize with. However, in the big picture, if they weren’t here the country would do just fine economically. The GDP growth rates would not drop dramatically if they left. Unemployment would likely go down, not up. Sure some industries would suffer that have become dependent on low-cost illegal workers. But they will just have to find Americans to do the work and pay them more. And consumers will have to pay a little more for some goods.
“I believe that 11 million illegal aliens should be contributing to this economy legally not illegally. That amount of people translates to taxpayer dollars that can go towards schools, roads, etc.”
If we are gong to let 11 million people immigrate to the US, why not let in people with high skills. That is what Canada and Australia are now doing. High skill workers will pay more taxes ad require less government subsidies. And the second and third generations will do better also.
Many Hispanics that we let come here illegally will work hard and their kids will grow up and be good citizens and move up economically. However, we have to look at the averages. And the averages are looking really bad for the future generations of the illegal Hispanics coming here. As the above research says, “Unless the life chances of children raised by single mothers suddenly improve, the explosive growth of the U.S. Hispanic population over the next couple of decades does not bode well for American social stability.” I don’t see any magic on the horizon to fix these coming problems.
November 25th, 2006 at 7:32 pm
[...] A couple of day ago I quoted from Heather Mac Donald regarding the problems arising from letting millions of low-income Hispanics move to the US. And then I added this: Scary too, wait until single-parent Hispanic families as a group get fully engaged with our anti-poverty welfare system. The system, when combined with poor and unstable Hispanic families, will methodically create a new underclass - and it will very likely be much more widespread than the black underclass. [...]
December 5th, 2006 at 2:17 am
[…] A couple of day ago I quoted from Heather Mac Donald regarding the problems arising from letting millions of low-income Hispanics move to the US. And then I added this: Scary too, wait until single-parent Hispanic families as a group get fully engaged with our anti-poverty welfare system. The system, when combined with poor and unstable Hispanic families, will methodically create a new underclass - and
December 31st, 2006 at 1:13 am
[...] John Edwards is a believer in the Great Society Phase II. The Great Society Phase I is still in place and has done much more harm than good (try taking a walk sometime in your nearest major city’s inner city and see how lovely things turned out). It has wiped out the black family structure within inner cities. It is getting ready to do the same to Hispanic families. But for now, let’s ignore all of these, uhm, minor problems. [...]
May 19th, 2007 at 11:52 pm
The U.S. does not even know how many illegal aliens are living amongst us. The numbers could be closer to 30 million. With more illegals coming in, wages will drop. Your cushy job and benefits will be lowered by ownership, why do they need an American at X amount when they can hire new hungry immigrants for less? I happen to have some extra cash, rich actually, but I do hate to see the middle class shrink.
May 29th, 2007 at 8:09 pm
[...] So letting in millions of the poor from Mexico and Latin America, who have rapidly increasing out-of-wedlock birth rates and high 2nd and 3rd generation high school drop-out rates, is “what’s right for America”? Please explain why this is good for us Mr. President. I am just not seeing it. With the high birth rates of Latino poor people moving here, we are well on our way to a massive new underclass problem in our big cities. Now how is that “right for America”? [...]
September 3rd, 2007 at 12:40 am
I have self professed phd in mongoloid peoples for all my life my father gallivanted his family in mission work from Latin America to the Philippines as well as Canada and the U.S. The facet I found most troubling was their astronomically high divorce rate and as well as their bizarre emphasis on having a litter of children. It was almost like a earned badge a show masculinity or an indication of being a virile women. My point is this in economics there is a theory of mercantilism which states that there is only so much land, resource etc and their inability to grasp this concept speaks volumes as to Mexico’s current state. In 1960 the population of Mexico was 30 million today it is an estimated 110 million people. This should be a reasonable forecast into Americas future, plus look at Mexico’s in ability to fight corruption and produce jobs.
February 20th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
What about racial white pride? Apparantly it is racist to be proud of being white. What about racial changes, not only demographic but gentics. Where will white people go? Decline? It is.
So what if it continues? Extinction? Come on people, think!
Racial double standards, if this problem continues than the white race will decline hugely. Also Hispanic crime is on the rise, ever noticed non-white on white crime?
Minorities in large numbers form a “cultural defence” that becomes aggressive and double standards take place.
Stupid goverment.