What Are the Latino Migration Trends?
How can companies take advantage of global migration trends to gain a share of the growing Latino market? What must corporate leaders know to tap into this burgeoning talent pool?
Pew Hispanic Center’s Associate Director Dr. Mark Hugo Lopez provided answers to these and other questions in a fact-filled presentation at DiversityInc’s global-learning event.
DiversityInc’s global research in 12 countries was previewed at the event and summary is available on DiversityIncBestPractices.com.
“With the growing diversity of the U.S. labor force,” said Lopez, “the Latino community is playing a large role in many of those changes.”
Here’s how Latinos will be impacting the corporate workforce landscape:
- Latinos had the largest population growth spurt over the past decade. In 2000, the Latino population hit 34.8 million (12.6 percent), making it the largest underrepresented group in the nation. By 2009, that number grew to 47.4 million, or 15.8 percent of the population. That number continues to grow; Census 2010 data shows 50.5 million (16 percent) of people in the United States were Latino. And although much of this growth has come from immigration, “in this past decade, births to Hispanic mothers have outpaced immigration as a source of population growth,” explained Lopez.
- Growth in the working-age population (25–44) has largely come from the Latino population, while the number of whites has declined. This means that companies looking to build a pipeline of diverse talent must step up their outreach efforts to include organizations and influencers of Latinos.
- Latinos represent the second-largest single group of foreign-born people, after Asians. While the Asian/Pacific Islander population represented 62.2 percent of all foreign-born people in the United States, Latinos in 2009 were about half that at 37.3 percent. “We’re in the middle of a huge immigration wave,” said Lopez. “And in the coming decades, the biggest component of population is going to be coming from the Hispanic population.”
- By 2050, Pew projects Latinos will be about 29 percent of the U.S. population. At the same time, less than half of the population (47 percent) will be white in 2050.
- Today, Latinos are more dispersed geographically. “Over the last 10 years, we’ve seen Hispanic growth in virtually every county in the United States,” says Lopez, citing Nebraska, Iowa and rural areas of Washington state as new destinations for Latinos.
- Latinos represented 14.4 percent of the labor force, “but, frankly, many are young and haven’t even entered the labor force yet,” explains Lopez.
- Educational attainment among Latinos is relatively low. Unlike other immigrant groups that enter the United States to pursue a degree, Lopez points out, Latinos largely come here to work. In 2009, 10.2 percent held associate degrees, 6.8 percent held bachelor’s degrees and only 5.2 percent had graduate degrees.
Prior to joining the Pew Hispanic Center, Lopez was research director at University of Maryland’s Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE); he was also research assistant professor at the School of Public Policy. Lopez received his Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University.
2:26 pm
I have to state honestly that as an African American resident of Arizona, I am concerned about the HUGE influx of Mexican immigrants into our country and especially this state. I have met with more racism in the Mexican community than I have ever had to endure living in and amongst white people all my life. I am originally from the East Coast, so I am used to living in a very diverse community of people, but the Latinos in the East are often Puerto Rican and Cuban, and they are not ashamed of being brown and are proud to admit to African ancestry. Am I being paranoid and weird about my fear that Blacks will become the new minority and be treated just as badly by the Latino population as we have been in the past by whites??? “Brown Pride” is a big slogan in the Mexican community out here, but when I asked someone if that included me they were very clear that it did NOT. My son’s have had problems with the parents and families of Mexican women that they have dated, and I have heard one too many Mexican mothers discuss how important it is to keep their children out of the sun so that they won’t get “too dark.” Perhaps it is just fear of the unknown and I certainly never considered myself a racist, but I have had to seriously grapple with my belief system in the more than five years I have lived here in AZ. Any thoughts??
3:45 pm
To the gentleman from AZ. Although I am not of Mexican decent, I am Hispanic. I feel badly for your experience. The Mexican people for the most part have been treated like second class citizens in this country (especially if they were not born or raised here). I believe people first band together for protection and to support each other when people who are different than they treat them poorly. Many times though, in doing this, we isolate ourselves even more and become like those who caused us harm. Distrust for one group or another creates exclusion. We are all good and evil and we must seek out good. Perhaps you will be an positive influence on someone else even without knowing it. Although I am a white Hispanic, I believe we all can trace our roots back to Africa anyway. (smile)
5:19 pm
what the brother (or sister) in Arizona is describing is one of the many sad consequences of internalized racism: the reality that as people of color we sometimes internalize the values and beliefs of racism. In this case the assumption that whiter (read: lighter skin) is better. Unfortunately these values and beliefs have permeated sectors of our Latin@ communities and they are intertwined with other values, beliefs and practices which support hierarchies and oppression based not only on race but on class and other sources of privilege as well. As communities of color we need to fight not only the oppressor outside but the oppressor within us as well. Unity and understanding between African American/Blacks and Latin@s/Hispanics as well as other groups is essential if we are to achieve peace and justice for all.
10:13 pm
Latino! Who are we talking about? This descriptor is also like “Hispanic,” a poor one. Each nation has its own “normal” personality, folkways, mores, taboos. There is even diversity within a national origin group. Lumping people just because they speak Spanish does not speak to the historical, social, geographical differences. The Joni Hersh study has some interesting findings on “Hispanics” in the U.S.A. Symbolic racism is powerful and people even deny they are racist but their acts make it clear that they consider race in their dealings with others.