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Hispanics

are people of Spanish origin, people who reported that their normal language was Spanish; they are also described as being of any 'race'. The Census Bureau recored that in 1985 about (17 million) seven per cent of the population were Hispanic.

The recorded numbers are increasing both through immigration, legal and illegal and relatively high birth rate.

Almost all the Hispanics are people who have come from Latin America. About one sixth or 2.5 million people, originate from the American Caribbean island of Puerto Rico – nearly as many people as living now on the island.

There are several reasons why Hispanics are classed as a distinct group, unlike any of the large national or linguistic groups which came from Europe in the period of mass immigration before 1920.

First, the Hispanics have come, since about 1950 (but more still since 1970), in very large numbers. Second, they have tended to remain in certain parts of the USA so that in these areas there has been an obvious change in the balance of the population. Third, because so many have been concentrated in certain areas, they have tended to be slow to learn English, and to keep together in their groups. Fourth, they appear to be ethnically different from white or black Americans. Each of these matters demands examination.

First, the large numbers seem particularly important because the motive for their coming, to seek better material conditions than at home, seems likely to continue to encourage a long-term continuation of the flow. They may not be poorer at home, or when they arrive, than most of the Italians who came in the 1920s, but in relative terms their poverty is greater, and they are for the most part 'escaping from third world conditions'.

The regional concentration is complex. The largest is in the southwestern states, from California to Texas, and there the Hispanics come mainly from Mexico and the countries to the south of it. For example, in 1980 there were 2 million Hispanics, and the number has increased since then, so that it's nearly a quarter of the whole population. the numerous local school boards were faced with great numbers of pupils who first came to school not knowing any English.

Some Hispanics are pressing for the maintenance of a culture within American society more distinct than any of the local ethnic cultures which survive from the earlier Irish or Italian immigrations.

In Texas the major city of San Antonio, which was the capital under Spanish and Mexican rule and was still the state's largest city in the 1920s, now has a majority of Hispanics, mainly of Mexican origin, though the proportions are much lower in the now bigger cities of Houston and Dallas, further from the border. Another area with large numbers of Hispanics is southern Florida, where they are a majority of the population of of the main city Miami. But here they are mainly immigrants from Cuba, opponents of the communist regime established after Fidel Castro's revolution in 1959. Florida's Cubans have little in common with the majority of the people who have come from Central America to the southwestern United States. Many of the Cubans came from that country's business and professional elements, with skills ans qualifications which were useful in their new American environment.



Outside the Southwest and Florida, the only places with substantial Hispanic population are new York and Chicago. Most of New York's Hispanics are originally from Puerto Rico. The position with Chicago is similar, though in that city Hispanics are outnumbered more than twice over by blacks.

Government statistics show that by several important indications people of Puerto Rican origin are less favourably placed than the general population or than other Hispanics. Well over a third of all Puerto Rican households are single-parent families. Among Puerto Ricans unemployment is higher than among other Hispanics, far more are below the poverty line and fewer are prosperous.

Asians

In 1959 there were fewer than 200,000 Americans with origins across the Pacific, nearly all in China, Japan and the Philippines. Now there are more than 4 million (2 percent of the population) mostly from these countries but also including people from the Indian subcontinent and Indonesia, and in particular, Vietnam. Some tens of thousands Vietnamese were brought to the USA in a special relief programme around 1975, when the communists' take over of their country seemed inevitable. Others are later refugees, including 'boat people'. One recent survey indicates that the educational attainments and average income of young Asians once established in the US is above the average for the general population. There is not much intermarriage, but this group seems to be integrating itself quite smoothly with established American society.


Date: 2015-01-02; view: 877


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