Hispanics in the Usa

HISPANICS IN THE USA

Text 1:

Hispanics, the Largest U.S. Minority, Enrich the American Mosaic

They contribute tradition, creativity and innovation to U.S. society

15 September 2010

By Louise Fenner
Staff Writer

Washington — Hispanics, the largest and fastest-growing minority in the United States, are changing American society and culture.

The Census Bureau estimates that 48.4 million people in the United States, or 16 percent of the population, are Hispanic or Latino (the terms are used interchangeably by the bureau). Hispanics are defined in the census as U.S. residents of any race whose origins are from Spain, Mexico, or the Spanish-speaking countries of Central and South America and the Caribbean. Their numbers are projected to grow to 133 million, or 30 percent of the U.S. population, by 2050.

Hispanics are the nation’s youngest ethnic population, with a median age of 27.4 years — nine years younger than the general population. Slightly more than one-fifth, or 22 percent, of America’s children are Hispanic, and by 2050, some 39 percent will be Hispanic, according to projections.

Nearly two-thirds of Hispanics in the United States are of Mexican heritage, and the rest have origins in one of at least 19 other countries, each with distinctive cultures. They add their traditions to those they find in the United States, introducing new foods, music, arts, celebrations and ideas.

Hispanics “have enriched our culture and brought creativity and innovation to everything from sports to the sciences and from the arts to our economy,” says President Obama. “The story of Hispanics in America is the story of America itself. The Hispanic community’s values — love of family, a deep and abiding faith, and a strong work ethic — are America’s values.”

http://www.america.gov/st/peopleplace-english/2009/September/20090921163442xlrennef0.8085836.html

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Hispanic Immigration and Assimilation into the American Culture

By Jose Maria Marco *

Recent figures of the Hispanic presence in the United States are impressive. According to the latest data, the Hispanic population in the U.S. already numbers more than 40 million, a figure that represents one seventh of the total U.S. population. This growth represents almost half of the national population growth of 2.9 million people since July of 2003.

America, as it is said, is a country of immigrants. Which is to say that it has previously experienced significant waves of immigration of various ethnic, cultural and religious groups. Looking at the data specifically, Hispanic immigration appears to have three main characteristics. First, it tends to be concentrated in a few geographical areas in Texas, Florida, Southern California, New York and Illinois, although the dispersion is accelerating lately.

Second, most immigrants generally have abandoned their language of origin in favor of English between the second and the third generation. And in the case of Spanish-speaking immigrants, Spanish is spoken only among family members or the immediate community, where it does not compete with English, which most Hispanics view as necessary for societal integration.

On the other hand, many wish to maintain the use of the Spanish language, and given the size of the Spanish-speaking population, it is conceivable that a significant portion need not learn English to live in the U.S. Third, a large portion of U.S. territory was for a long time under the control of the then Mexican and Spanish Crown.

http://www.hacer.org/current/US207.php

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HISPANIC IMMIGRATION: ASSIMILATION OR SEPARATION?

by
Richard T. Alpert

The unprecedented growth in the U. S. Hispanic population over the last ten years has drawn a great deal of attention from serious scholars of immigration as well as the popular press and media. Samuel P. Huntington, a distinguished Harvard University political scientist in Who are We?:The Challenges to American's Identity (Simon Schuster. NY,2004) and a number of monographs written under the auspices of the Center for Immigration Studies, have raised the question about whether this immigration experience will mirror that of earlier groups. Will it be similar to that of Italians, Irish, Poles, and Jews and be accompanied by Americanization or instead result in a new kind of immigration experience with the development of Hispanic enclaves that would constitute a kind of “nation within a nation”?

Clearly the growth in the Hispanic population over the last ten years and its projected increase is beyond that of previous immigrant groups. The numbers of Hispanic immigrants has increased from 9.3 percent of the total population in the 1990 Census to 11.4 percent in the 2000 Census. The largest population growth will be of people of Hispanic origin (who may be of any race). Hispanics are projected to increase from 35.6 million to 102.6 million, or 188 percent BY 2050. Their share of the nation's population would nearly double, from 12.6 percent to 24.4 percent, overtaking African-Americans at 13.6 percent and Asians at 8.2 percent. Due largely to the growth in the Hispanic population, by 2050, non-Hispanic whites will decrease from the current 69.4 percent to 50.1 percent of the total population.