An Old American Comments on Sailer vs. Barone
Two recent reports offer fascinating insights into our current immigration disaster.
In a study needless to say unmentioned in Michael Barone's The New Americans, the well-known Yankelovich marketing research firm reported:
"Hispanics' preference for the Spanish language in every situation, including home, work, and media consumption, is on the rise - from 44% in 1997 to 53% this year, according to Yankelovich's Hispanic MONITOR. Yankelovich, the leading authority on consumer behavior, today released its 2000 Hispanic MONITOR, an in-depth look at the values, attitudes and behavioral patterns among the Hispanic market. Based on data from 1,206 in-home interviews with Hispanics by bilingual interviewers, Yankelovich identified language preference, patterns of diversity, aspirations, multi-ethnicity, and more. …
"'A higher preference for Spanish runs counter to current conceptions of acculturation, which assume that many of these consumers will be moving closer, over time, to English usage [my emphasis] in their everyday lives,' said Olivia Llamas, Yankelovich's Hispanic MONITOR Director. … Increasing opportunities to demonstrate culture and use Spanish, as well as the mainstream successes of Hispanic personalities, have reinforced the desire to maintain ties to Hispanic heritage and roots [my emphasis]. Hispanics are placing greater emphasis on language and culture, and less emphasis on mainstream acceptance:
· "Up from 63% in 1997, 69% of Hispanics say that the Spanish language is more important to them now than five years ago
· "Fewer Hispanics are concerned with fitting in (72% in 1997, 64% in 2000) and with finding acceptance from non-Hispanics (77% in 1997, 68% in 2000) …
"Interviews were conducted in the seven largest Hispanic markets: Los Angeles, New York, Miami, San Francisco/San Jose, Chicago, Houston, and San Antonio from March to May 2000. The following sub-groups were represented in the study: Mexicans (56%), Central Americans (12%), Puerto Ricans (10%), Cubans (8%), Dominicans (7%), and South Americans (5%)."
Yankelovich's 2000 Hispanic MONITOR
Also, Robin Fields and Ray Herndon of the Los Angeles Times noted on July 5:"Segregation of a New Sort Takes Shape
"Census: In a majority of cities, Asians and Latinos have become more isolated from other racial groups."
"[D]uring the last decade, while blacks were making some progress in residential integration, Latinos and Asians became more isolated from other racial groups in the vast majority of the nation's large metropolitan areas, from Chicago's red-bricked grid to Phoenix's beige sprawl, a Times analysis of 2000 census data shows. …
"In 21 of 25 population centers, Asians were more likely to live apart from other races in 2000 than in 1990, according to the dissimilarity index, which calculates how evenly ethnic groups are spread within communities. Latinos became more segregated in 19 of 25 areas…
"To some extent, the increased intensity of Asian and Latino enclaves is not surprising. These populations grew far more swiftly than other groups in the last decade, fueled by immigration, family reunification and higher birthrates. Massive undercounting in 1990 also may be a factor.
"'Theirs is an isolation driven by higher density and sheer accumulation,[my emphasis]' said Philip Ethington, a USC historian who analyzes segregation in Los Angeles County. 'You have to think in terms of the established groups—blacks and whites—as being in retreat, leaving city cores to the newcomers.'"
"'It took 50 years for similar white ethnic communities to disperse in Eastern cities, and vestiges of them still remain,' said John Logan, who studies segregation at the State University of New York at Albany's Lewis Mumford Center for Comparative Urban and Regional Research."
"Some demographers fear, however, that Latino and Asian enclaves may prove more stubborn and less nurturing, both because of the ethnic component and because of their sheer size.'That scale changes things,' said Richard Sander, a law professor and director of UCLA's empirical research group. 'With European immigrants, you had a number of smaller groups that over time became indistinguishable from other whites. With Latinos, there's less of a drive to assimilate and more desire to maintain a link to Latin culture.'"
Los Angeles Times, July 5, 2001
Emphasis - and warning - mine.[Steve Sailer [email him] is founder of the Human Biodiversity Institute and movie critic for The American Conservative. His website www.iSteve.blogspot.com features his daily blog.]
July 07, 2001
