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Immigration

Hispanic College Enrollment Rate Overtakes White Enrollment

By Rebecca Leber on May 10, 2013 at 1:35 pm

A Pew Research Center report released Thursday notes that Hispanic college enrollment reached a record high for the class of 2012, surpassing the rate of white enrollment for the first time. Pew shows that 69 percent of Hispanic high school graduates enrolled in college compared to 67 percent of whites, a jump from just under half of the graduating class in 2000. And there are other promising stats: The Hispanic high school dropout rate is at 14 percent, down from 28 percent a decade before. Still, Hispanic college students are less likely to enroll in a four-year, full-time college and are less likely to complete a bachelor’s degree.

Though the Pew report does not look closely at the reasons behind the increase, it suggests that declining employment opportunities for high school graduates may be part of the explanation:

It is possible that the rise in high school completion and college enrollment by Latino youths has been driven, at least in part, by their declining fortunes in the job market. Since the onset of the recession at the end of 2007, unemployment among Latinos ages 16 to 24 has gone up by seven percentage points, compared with a five percentage point rise among white youths. With jobs harder to find, more Latino youths may have chosen to stay in school longer.

Another factor, however, could be the importance that Latino families place on a college education. According to a 2009 Pew Hispanic Center survey, 88% of Latinos ages 16 and older agreed that a college degree is necessary to get ahead in life today (Pew Hispanic Center, 2009). By contrast, a separate 2009 survey of all Americans ages 16 and older found that fewer (74%) said the same (Pew Research Social & Demographic Trends, 2009).

The following graphs show the dramatic change:

This should catch the attention of Heritage Foundation’s Jason Richwine, who coauthored a debunked immigration study that argues reform is too costly. Richwine argued in his dissertation that immigrants naturally possess a lower IQ, a pseudoscience point linked to anti-immigration groups actively working against reform.

Anti-immigrant advocates don’t note this, of course, but legalization and state-level reform would help more undocumented immigrants pursue a college education. But right now many states still do not provide in-state tuition to deferred action students.

Politics

Jeb Bush: ‘There Should Be No Surprise’ That Republicans Keep Losing The Minority Vote

By Zack Beauchamp and Scott Keyes on Apr 19, 2013 at 12:30 pm

MIAMI — At a conservative Latino conference where the mere mention of his name as a presidential candidate drew wild applause, former Governor Jeb Bush (R-FL) delivered a blistering critique of Republican outreach to racial minorities, calling the GOP a “reactionary party” bereft of ideas both for appealing to minority voters and for repairing the country more broadly.

Bush’s comments came at the annual Hispanic Leadership Network conference, where “right of center” Latinos meet to discuss politics and policy — this year’s focus is comprehensive immigration reform. The governor delivered the keynote address at the conference’s Thursday afternoon session, which is where he leveled his bleak assessment of the GOP on race:

BUSH: Immigration is a gateway issue. It’s not the dominant — you ask people the polling, immigration’s important — but it’s not the dominant [issue]. Education’s more important, health care’s more important. Jobs are more important. [...] But if you send a signal, “yeah yeah, we want your vote” — Of course we want your vote, everybody wants your vote, but you can’t be part of our team, you can’t join our club, you’re not who I am. We don’t have a set of shared values.” You think people are going to embrace that kind of attitude? That’s exactly what we’ve done in about six election cycles in a row. So it should be no surprise that we have the result we have.

Watch it:

Bush has recently gotten into hot water with factions both to his right and his left. He claims to support a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, but has taken a muddled and at times contradictory position on the issue in recent weeks. Not only is this stance unpopular on the anti-immigration reform right, but Bush’s frequent criticisms of the GOP’s hard-right wing swing have angered some grassroots conservatives.

ThinkProgress attempted to ask Bush about how he would reach out to another group of minority voters, LGBT Americans, but Bush wouldn’t listen to the question.

Justice

Republicans Introduce Legislation To Discriminate Against Non-English Speakers

By Scott Keyes on Mar 29, 2013 at 1:30 pm

Left: Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK). Right: Rep. Steve King (R-IA)

Republicans are continuing their minority outreach efforts this month by introducing a bill outlawing Spanish and other non-English languages from being used in federal documents.

Rep. Steve King (R-IA), most recently in the headlines after attacking President Obama’s young daughters for going on vacation, introduced the English Language Unity Act in the House earlier this month, along with Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) in the Senate. As King notes on his website, the bill would require “all official functions of the United States to be conducted in English.” Federal and state governments print thousands of documents every year, many of which are translated into other languages besides English.

One major impact King’s bill could have is to stop the decades-long practice of printing non-English ballots in areas where there’s a significant non-English language group. Indeed, Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 currently requires local jurisdictions with a substantial number of non-English speakers to allow them to vote in other languages.

King’s bill currently enjoys 39 co-sponsors in the House—37 Republicans and two conservative Democrats—though that number will likely increase over time. Inhofe’s Senate bill has five co-sponsors, all Republicans.

English-only bills not only discriminate against immigrants and minorities; they’re also wholly unnecessary. Conservatives fret that immigrants today aren’t learning English like immigrants of yesteryear, but are instead confining themselves to permanent non-English enclaves. That idea is, to put it mildly, nonsense. Though first-generation immigrants often have limited-English proficiency, their children quickly adopt English, just as it’s always been in the proverbial American melting pot. By the second generation, more than 80 percent speak English exclusively or very well, and the figure jumps to nearly everyone in the third generation. In fact, as Professor Tomas Jimenez at Stanford University notes, “immigrants today are learning English faster than the large waves of immigrants who came to the United States during the turn of the last century.”
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Justice

Arizona Considers Banning Non-English Government Mailings

By Aviva Shen on Feb 6, 2013 at 5:00 pm

The Arizona House is planning to take up an “English only” bill that would ban state agencies from mailing out information in any language other than English. HB 2283, cleared on Tuesday by the House Government Committee, purports to save money by only allowing non-English translations to be posted online.

Though voting materials are exempted, banning non-English mailings would essentially cut off Arizona’s substantial Spanish-speaking population from government services — particularly any Spanish speakers who receive any kind of service from the government, including Medicaid and Social Security. As of 2010, Arizona has the 8th largest population of limited English speakers, who comprise 9.9 percent of all Arizona residents. Rather than promote English language education, Arizona excluded these residents by making English the official state language in 2006.

This new bill’s sponsor, Rep. Steve Smith (R-AZ), has pushed several other radical anti-immigrant measures, most recently a bill requiring hospitals to check and report the immigration status of their patients. While he claims HB 2283 saves money by only printing documents in English, others anticipate costly lawsuits like the ones sparked by the state’s last attempt at English only legislation. In 1988, Arizona passed a constitutional amendment to require all official government business be conducted in English. The Supreme Court struck it down for violating state employees’ First Amendment rights. The 2006 measure passed muster because it only applies to official government business.

But Smith’s bill, by focusing on agencies’ abilities to disseminate information, could block non-English speakers’ access to government services and violate federal law:

“The bill as currently drafted is much broader than Rep. Smith suggests,” said attorney Ellen Katz with the William E. Morris Institute for Justice. “It violates Title 6 of the Civil Rights Act. Even in states that have an English-as-their-official-language policy, you still have to follow federal law.”

Title 6 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal funds. Katz said mailing out documents in English but not in other languages would violate that.

Even a fellow Republican, Rep. Doug Coleman, took issue with Smith’s proposal, noting that if the bill’s true purpose is to save money, all English publications should be restricted to websites as well.

English only laws exist in 16 states. Last year, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) unsuccessfully pushed a federal version of the English only law, the English Language Unity Act.

LGBT

Elections And Polls Reveal Geographic And Political Divides On Marriage Equality

By Zack Ford on Nov 13, 2012 at 12:40 pm

Last week’s victories in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, and Washington are the latest signifiers that support continues to grow for marriage equality. But recent data suggest that the trend is not consistent across all geographical regions and communities, including some interesting results from those states.

Pew Research Center conducted a poll on same-sex marriage just two weeks before the election, its third reading on the issue this year. Marriage equality hit the highest favor (49 percent) and lowest opposition (40 percent) that Pew has ever recorded, just the latest in what Pew describes as the “steep recent trend” toward support. Still, there are big regional divides, with 62 percent favor in New England and 57 percent favor in the mid-Atlantic compared to a more even split in the Midwest (46-44 in favor) and continued opposition in the South (56-35 against) and the South Atlantic (48-42 against). Still, the trend toward support is evident across all regions — the South just happens to be about 10 years behind the rest of the country.

Pew also found that support continues to grow among black Americans, at higher rates over 2012 than among whites. Still, the black community is more closely divided with 44 percent in favor, 39 opposed, and 17 percent unsure. Hispanic voters are less divided, with 59 percent supporting the freedom to marry and only 32 percent opposed.

Within the states where votes were held, other interesting dynamics are apparent. For example, in Maryland, two prominent Republican strongholds voted for Mitt Romney for president but also approved same-sex marriage, or voted for same-sex marriage at higher rates than for Romney. By contrast, newly elected Democrats in Minnesota are unsure whether they could support marriage equality efforts because constituents in their districts also voted for the referendum to ban recognition of such unions. This reflects how the trend toward equality has not advanced as quickly in the Midwest as it has on the east coast.

The National Organization for Marriage has claimed since last week that there is no such trend, but that is delusional thinking. Steve Schmidt, who advised the presidential campaigns of John McCain and George W. Bush, acknowledged this, asking on behalf of the Republican Party, “Why should we sign a suicide pact with the National Organization for Marriage?” Still, NOM may try to capitalize on the weak points in the polling, targeting vulnerable areas of the country where support is lower and continuing to attempt its nefarious race-wedging strategies.

Health

VIEWPOINT: The Emerging Pro-Choice Majority

By Zack Beauchamp on Nov 12, 2012 at 12:11 pm

Abortion rights, we’re told, are our Great Divider. America is cleaved in two. Fifty unremitting percent on either side. There is no United States of America, only pro and anti choice America.

But what if that’s not true? Or, more precisely, what if that won’t be true for much longer?

The 2012 election has been touted as a watershed moment for the Democratic Party, but it may have been one for the pro-choice cause as well. And it’s not because the would-be rape caucus was defeated or that pro-choice candidates won big, though those help. Rather, it’s that there’s good reasons to believe the coalition Obama has built is not only durable, but also staunchly pro-choice. If that’s true, it could signify the start of a major shift on what had previously been thought to have been a fundamental fault line in American politics.

Let’s start with the exit polling. The 2012 electorate was overwhelmingly pro-choice; 59 percent said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while only 36 percent said the reverse. The critical swing states followed the pattern, with some like Virginia falling to the left of the national average. Exit polls should be taken with a grain of salt, of course, but these numbers undeniably suggest American voters are more pro-choice than previously thought, especially in the states up for grabs in Presidential and Senatorial elections.

These data throw a monkey wrench in the conventional wisdom about abortion rights — namely, that it’s an issue that the GOP could use to make inroads with the new Obama coalition. Young voters, women, African-Americans, and Latinos have average-to-conservative views on choice, we’re told. But many identified as pro-choice in 2012. What gives?

Part of the answer is that the general picture is wrong: these key Democratic groups generally track the national average on abortion or tilt left. Though some polls suggest young voters are likely to support restricting abortion rights, the most systematic evidence suggests Milllenials are as, if not more, likely to support keeping abortion legal in all or most cases as the general population. Ditto with women. While African-Americans used to lean right, the most recent polling suggests a decisive pro-choice shift.

Even Latinos, who generally (though not always) tend to oppose abortion rights, have more complicated views than pundits generally let on. While first and second generation Latino-Americans tend to oppose abortion in most or all cases, third generation and higher Latinos support abortion rights by a 19 point margin. Since the Latino population boom is currently being fueled by birth rather than immigration, the third generation cohort seems likely to grow over time. Not incidentally, Latinos who voted in the 2012 election supported keeping abortion legal by a 2:1 margin (though, for it’s worth, the poll didn’t include Texas).

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NEWS FLASH

POLL: Majority Of Latinos Support Marriage Equality | For the first time ever, the Pew Hispanic Center’s National Survey of Latinos has found that a majority of Hispanics (52 percent) support marriage equality. Only 34 percent oppose allowing same-sex couples to marry. This is a complete flip from six years ago, when 56 percent opposed and only 31 percent supported the freedom to marry. A similar poll recently found that 60 percent of Latinos support marriage equality. in  One exception to the result was that evangelical Christian Latinos still largely oppose marriage equality (66 percent).

NEWS FLASH

STUDY: Minority Gays And Lesbians More Likely To Attend Non-Affirming Churches | Based on new analysis of data collected in 2004-2005, it seems that Latino and Black lesbian, gay, and bisexual people tend to be more religious than their white counterparts, and were also more likely to attend services in non-affirming settings. As a result, they tended to have higher levels of internalized homophobia than Whites. Also of note is that although LGB Americans tend to be less religious than heterosexuals, those in this study reported higher levels of spirituality. It’s unclear how outspoken support of LGBT equality by prominent leaders in Black and Latino religious communities in the years since these data were collected has shifted the dynamics.

NEWS FLASH

POLL: 60 Percent Of Latinos Support Marriage Equality | A new poll from NBC Latino/IBOPE Zogby finds that 60 percent of Latinos support marriage equality, including 48 percent who “strongly” agree that same-sex couples should have the right to marry. Only 38 percent disagreed. Disturbingly, a full 10 percent said that being gay, over being a drug addict or being sent to prison, would be the biggest disappointment when it comes to their children. Anti-gay groups like the National Organization for Marriage have tried to drive a wedge between Latinos and the LGBT community by claiming that “Hispanic communities have always opposed same-sex marriage” — clearly they do not.

Alyssa

Why Television Networks Should Court Hispanic Viewers

By Alyssa Rosenberg on Sep 13, 2012 at 11:26 am

I’m always interested in who television networks try to cater to, in contrast to who their actual audiences are. If networks were solidifying their core audiences on traditional set-top viewing, according to a new set of figures released by Nielsen, they should be courting women and African-American viewers. Women ages 18-34 are watching 4:04 hours of television each day, in contrast to men the same age, who watch three hours and thirty-eight minutes of television per day, though they spend more time on gaming consoles. African-American television viewers substantially outpace viewers of every other race or ethnicity: they watch 210 hours and 7 minutes of set-top television per month, in comparison to white viewers, who spend 152:57 per month, Hispanic viewers, who watch 131:19 hours of television per month, and Asian viewers, who watch 100 hours of television per month.

Of course, networks tend to chase what they don’t already have, but even if that was the case, Asian and Hispanic viewers have more hours to add in their schedule, and particularly in the case of Hispanic viewers, who are among the fastest-growing demographics in the country. The New York Times noted in an August story that networks want to reach Hispanic viewers, but it’s self-evidently bizarre that they think that using exaggerated tropes, like Sofia Vergara’s performance on Modern Family or Rob Schneider’s Rob, about his character’s marriage into a Mexican extended family, would be the way to do that. It’s one thing to cater to white audiences who are adjusting to the fact that they have more Latino people in their lives, and another to make programming that’s designed to appeal to Latinos themselves.

I also wonder if networks are more comfortable, for whatever reason, with shows that have African-American characters who are allowed to just be people, while they still rely on Latino characters to represent tropes. I’ve mentioned Go On a couple of times as a show that I think is doing diversity right, and that holds for its Latina character, Fausta. She speaks Spanish some of the time on the show (the Times story noted that Latino viewers show some preferences for Spanish-language programming over English-language programming), but not because it’s a way for her to be exaggerated. Rather than presenting her as exaggerated or overemotional, Fausta’s actually somewhat subdued, which makes sense, given that she’s in the show’s support group after losing much of her family. She’s both just a person, and blessedly, a full person, or as full as a character can get after two episodes of a sitcom dominated by Matthew Perry. But it’s a promising start, and I’ll be curious to see what happens to Go On‘s Latino viewership if the show lasts and the character gains some traction.

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